EPSRC logo

Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: EP/F047991/1
Title: Magnetic Resonance: From the Laboratory to Industrial Practice
Principal Investigator: Gladden, Professor L
Other Investigators:
Johns, Professor M Mantle, Dr MD
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department: Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology
Organisation: University of Cambridge
Scheme: Platform Grants
Starts: 01 January 2009 Ends: 31 December 2013 Value (£): 789,043
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Complex fluids & soft solids Instrumentation Eng. & Dev.
Multiphase Flow
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Chemicals
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Panel DatePanel NameOutcome
26 Feb 2008 Platforms Panel February 2008 Announced
Summary on Grant Application Form
Magnetic Resonance Imaging is widely used in hospitals to image blood flow and the internal structure of the human body. Our work focuses on extending these magnetic resonance (MR) techniques to study chemical products and processes. Over the past 5 years we have established an internationally respected skill base in developing MR techniques to study transport in porous materials (e.g. oil flow in rocks), transport and reaction in 3-D systems (e.g. chemical conversion occurring inside catalytic reactors) and processing structure-function relationships (e.g. effect of extrusion processing on the structure and texture of food products). We believe that we now have the research base in place to make a step-change in exploiting MR in industrial practice. To achieve this, we wish to extend our research activities by (i) improving signal-to-noise ratios and speeding up data acquisition times such that we will be able to image hydrodynamics and chemical conversion over much shorter timescales than we can now; our target is to reduce data acquisition times by an order of magnitude; and (ii) developing robust methods for mapping pH, oxygen content, temperature and pressure, and constructing realistic process environments (e.g. elevated pressure and temperature) within the MR magnet. As well as being able to make new measurements under realistic process conditions, these data will also enable us to understand the microscopic physical and chemical processes occurring in these complex systems such that we can work with those developing numerical codes of chemical processes to improve and validate the scientific assumptions and models incorporated in their process design tools. Finally, in collaboration with experts in low-field MR hardware (which is cheap, compact and relatively maintenance free compared with high-field technology) we will bring together our advances in reduced data acquisitions times and signal enhancement with their magnet technology to demonstrate MR measurements in the industrial R&D laboratory and eventually on plant.
Key Findings
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
Potential use in non-academic contexts
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
Impacts
Description This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
Summary
Date Materialised
Sectors submitted by the Researcher
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
Project URL:  
Further Information:  
Organisation Website: http://www.cam.ac.uk