Separation and purification processes play an important role in bioproducts manufacturing. The separation and purification processes we are interested include water removal processes including filtration, dewatering and drying and membrane separation processes. Our research interests are centered around fundamental understanding of the water removal processes, new process development and development of methods to optimize the efficiency of these processes.
Through Air Drying
Through air drying is commonly used in high quality tissue, towel and other consumer products manufacturing. Here we are interested in experimental and computational approaches to understanding the fundamental processes involved and methods to improve the same. The picture below shows an experimental setup capable of measuring the drying characteristics under commercially realistic process conditions, i.e. air flow, drying temperature etc.
A typical experimental drying characteristics data that can be obtained to study the drying process is shown below:
Based on above such measurements, we have shown that both structural non-uniformity and initial moisture non-uniformity can have a significant influence on the overall drying rate and the efficiency of the drying process.
In addition to characterizing the drying behavior of porous biomaterials, we have also developed process modeling, design and analysis computational tools to help with overall process development.