Dr Hemaka Bandulasena

BSc Eng (Hons) PhD CEng MIChemE FHEA

  • Reader in Chemical Engineering
  • Director of Doctoral Programmes, School of Aeronautical, Automotive, Chemical and Materials Engineering

Research groups and centres

Publications
ORCiD Researcher ID Google Scholar
headshot of Hemaka

Background:

Hemaka Bandulasena graduated with a BSc Eng. (Hons) degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka. He gained his PhD from the University of Sheffield in 2008 (Microfluidic Inference of Rheology of Complex fluids). This was followed by three years of research in the Fluidics group at University of Sheffield as a post-doctoral research associate. In February 2012, Hemaka joined Loughborough University as a lecturer in Chemical Engineering, then became a Senior Lecturer in 2016 and Reader in 2022. Hemaka is the Director of Doctoral Programmes in the School of Aeronautical, Automotive, Chemical and Materials Engineering since September 2019.

Qualifications:

  • PhD 2008 The University of Sheffield, UK
  • ILM Level 3 award in Coaching, Institute of Leadership and Management
  • ILM Level 5 award in Leadership and Management, Institute of Leadership and Management

Key awards:

  • Senior Moulton Medal, 2009 - for the best paper published by IChemE

Professional affiliations:

  • Charted Engineer
  • Member of the Institution of Chemical Engineers
  • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, UK

Outline of main research interests:

  • Biofuels and Biochemicals – Pretreatment technologies, process intensification, novel separation strategies
  • Microfluidics - Micro/nano bubbles: generation and applications, microfluidic oscillators, microfabrication, mathematical modelling, microrheometry
  • Electrokinetic Phenomena in Foam
  • Numerical Simulations 
  • Wastewater Treatment – Microbubble-plasma reactors

PhD positions

PhD positions are available in the areas of biofuels and biochemicals, process intensification, plasma-microbubble reactors, and foam electrokinetics. If you are interested to join the group, please contact me by email.

Teaching responsibilities:

  • Transfer processes (CGC051)
  • MEng design projects
  • Numerical Simulations with Comsol Multiphysics (CGB022, CGP075, CGC051)

Administrative responsibilities:

  • Director of Doctoral Programmes, School of Aeronautical, Automotive, Chemical and Materials Engineering (since 2019)
  • Member of the university senate (since 2020)
  • Member of the School Research Committee
  • IChemE Liaison Officer for Chemical Engineering at Loughborough University

Selected publications:

  1. Joseph Calverley, Will Zimmerman, David Leak, Hemaka Bandulasena*, 2021, Continuous removal of ethanol from dilute ethanol-water mixtures using hot microbubbles, Chemical engineering Journal, 424, 130511
  2. Oladayo Ogunyinka, Felipe Iza, Benjamin Buckley, Hemaka Bandulasena*, 2021, Epoxidation of trans-stilbene in a microfluidic plasma reactor, Chemical Engineering science, 240, 116665 (Featured in Chemical Engineering Science front cover, volume 244, November 2021)
  3. Chinasa Ojiako, Radu Cimpeanu, Hemaka Bandulasena, Roger Smith, Dmitri Tseluiko, 2020, Deformation and dewetting of liquid films under gas jets, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 905, A18
  4. Abdulkadir Hussein Sheik, Faraz Montazersadgh, Victor Starov, Anna Trybala, Upul Wijayantha, Hemaka Bandulasena*, 2020, Electrokinetic Transport of Charged Dye in a Freely Suspended Liquid Film: Experiments and Numerical Simulations, Langmuir, 36, 1183-1191
  5. Alexander Wright, Matteo Taglioli, Faraz Montazersadgh, Alex Shaw, Felipe Iza, H C Hemaka Bandulasena*, 2019, Microbubble-Enhanced DBD Plasma Reactor: Design, Characterisation and Modelling, Chemical Engineering Research and Design, 144, 159-173
  6. Alexander Wright, Adam Marsh, Federica Ricciotti, Alex Shaw, Felipe Iza, Richard Holdich, Hemaka Bandulasena*, 2018, Microbubble-enhanced dielectric barrier discharge pretreatment of microcrystalline cellulose, Biomass and Bioenergy Journal, 118, 46-54
  7. Alexander Wright, Christopher Ibenegbu, Thomas Holmes, Alex Shaw, William Zimmerman, Felipe Iza, David Leak, Hemaka Bandulasena*, 2018, Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma Microbubble Reactor for Pretreatment of Lignocellulosic Biomass, AIChE Journal, 64(11), 3803-3816
  8. Zimmerman, W. B., Al-Mashhadani, M. K. H., Hemaka Bandulasena, H. C., 2013, Evaporation dynamics of microbubbles, Chemical Engineering Science, 101, 865-877
  9. William B. Zimmerman, Mohammad Zandi, HC Hemaka Bandulasena, Václav Tesař, James Gilmour, Kezhen Ying, 2011, Design of an airlift loop bioreactor and pilot scales studies with fluidic oscillator induced microbubbles for growth of a microalgae Dunaliella salina, Applied Energy, 88 (10), 3357-3369 
  10. Zimmerman WBJ, HewakandambyBN, TesařV, BandulasenaHCH, OmotowaOA, 2009, On the design and simulation of an airlift loop bioreactor with microbubble generation by fluidic oscillation, Food and Bioproducts Processing, 87, 215-227.

For a full list of publications:

 

 

External Collaborators:

  • University of Sheffield
  • University of Bath
  • University of York
  • Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
  • The Czech Academy of Sciences
  • VTT, Finland
  • Perlemax Ltd.
  • Falck Fire Consulting
  • EA-RS Group Ltd