Understanding dispersed multiphase flows; a key to future technologies

• Applicant: Dr.-Ing. Fabian Sewerin
• Subject Area: Mechanical Process Engineering ; Chemical and Thermal Process Engineering
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 443546539

In this proposal, I aim at elucidating the behaviour of reactive turbulent multiphase flows with the objective to further two emerging and, potentially, life-changing technologies: The combustion of metal fuels as basis of a sustainable energy economy and the cultivation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to aid the dissemination of regenerative therapies. Metal fuels consist of micron-sized powders that can be burned in air similar to hydrocarbon fuels, but yield solid oxide products. Since these solid oxides can be retrieved from the exhaust gases of a reactor, metal fuels are currently investigated as candidates for dense, recyclable energy carriers. Commensurate with our society's endeavour to combat climate change and transition to a carbon-free energy economy, metal fuels may form the basis of a closed and sustainable cycle of primary energy capture, storage and demand-controlled release. The physical processes in turbulent flames of metal fuels are governed by an intricate interplay between turbulence, chemical reactions and particle interactions for which our present understanding is limited yet and the development of predictive modelling strategies has remained challenging. Similar difficulties occur in a very different application, the expansion of MSCs on colonized microcarriers in stirred tank reactors. MSCs can be isolated from bone marrow and have been shown to not only regenerate skeletal tissues, but also function as transplantable injury drugstores.In order to support the development of metal fuel engines and the industrialization of MSC-based therapies, my objective is to consider the dispersed multiphase flows that occur here from a unified perspective and develop a modelling framework that circumvents the physical and mathematical approximations inherent in existing approaches. The model I advance synthesizes a population balance description of the dispersed phase with large eddy simulation and encompasses a probabilistic method for accommodating the influence of turbulence on chemical reactions and particle interactions. Beyond a fundamental understanding of turbulence mediation, this framework will provide us with a cost-effective means to consolidate the role of metal fuel combustors in the energy transition and to establish a pharmaceutical infrastructure for curing long-standing diseases.

• DFG Programme: Independent Junior Research Groups