Plenary Lectures

---

Plenary Speech: Large-scale DNS of particle-fluid systems and its implications to fluidized bed technologies

Prof. Wei Ge, Received his B. Sc. Degree in 1992 and then Ph.D Degree in 1998, both from Harbin Institute of Technology, China. He has been professor of chemical engineering at Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences since 2006. He is mainly engaged in multi-scale simulation of multi-phase systems including fluidization, micro- and nano-flows, granular materials and porous media. He proposed pseudo-particle modeling for microscopic simulation of macro-scale flow behavior and improved the energy-minimization multi-scale model for gas-solid and gas-liquid flows. He has published over 170 journal papers and co-authored 5 monographs. He is associate editor of Chemical Engineering Science and adversary board member of Particuology. 

Plenary Speech: Large Scale Fluid Bed Systems for Synthesis of Chemicals and Comparable Processes Using Group A Powders - An Engineer’s Perspective on Design and Scale-up

Behzad Jazayeri (BJ) holds a Bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from University College London, a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from MIT, and an MBA from Boston University. He has 40 years process engineering and technology scale-up experience of which over half has been associated with piloting and scale-up of new processes using fluidized bed reactors. He has led the process engineering and design of 8 pilot plants, 6 first commercial plants, and many concept plants using group A or B powders. He has published several papers and one patent, and has contributed to one book. He has been acting as embedded Owner’s process manager for the last several years. Previously he was with Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, GreatPoint Energy, Fluor and Badger Process Technology (TechnipFMC).

Prof. Filip Johnsson is professor in Sustainable Energy Systems in Department of Space, Earth and Environment, Chalmers University of Technology. Filip Johnsson received his doctoral degree in 1991 and was appointed Professor in 2001.

Filip Johnson’s research area comprises Combustion and Energy Systems Analysis. The combustion research has its main focus on fluidized bed combustion. The core of the research concerns mixing and fluid-dynamics in fluidized beds for combustion and gasification. Filip Johnsson’s combustion related research also includes oxyfuel combustion for CO2 capture and storage (CCS). The energy systems research investigates how the European energy and industrial systems can be transformed to comply with strict greenhouse gas emission targets. This includes efficient integration of variable electricity generation (wind and solar power) by means of various demand side management options, energy storage devices and flexible operation of power plants, including flexible fluidized-bed combined heat and power plants.                                      

Plenary Speech: Sticking together: is unity strength? 

Prof. Raffaella Ocone obtained her first degree in Chemical Engineering from the Università di Napoli in Italy and her MA and PhD in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University in the US. She holds the Chair of Chemical Engineering in the School of Engineering and Physical Sciences at Heriot-Watt University (HWU) since 1995. She is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Institution of Chemical Engineers, and the Royal Society of Chemistry. In 2007 she was conferred the title of Cavaliere of the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity from the Italian Republic. In The Queen’s 2019 New Year Honours she was appointed  Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to engineering.

At HWU, she is the Head of the Multiphase Multiscale Engineering Modelling (MMEM) research group. Raffaella has worked in a number of highly recognised international Institutions such as the Università di Napoli (Italy); Claude Bérnard Université, Lyon (France); Louisiana State University (US); Princeton University (US). She was awarded the Caroline Herschel Visiting Professorship, which recognises excellent international scientists to carry out research at Ruhr Universität Bochum in Germany for one semester (July-November 2017). This was the first time that the Professorship was awarded to an engineer. Prof. Ocone is also the recipient of a Visiting Research Fellowship from the Institute for Advanced Studies at the Università di Bologna in Italy (March-April 2018).

Prof. Ocone’s main area of research is in the field of modelling complex (multi-phase) reactive systems and she is the EPSRC Established Career Fellow in Particle Technology. Prof. Ocone has taken an active role in debating the role that ethics plays in engineering and in inspiring younger generation – especially young women - to study engineering. 

Plenary Speech: Towards Sustainable Energy and Materials: CO2Capture using Novel Nanoscale Hybrid Particulate Systems

Prof. A.-H. Alissa Park is the Lenfest Chair in Applied Climate Science of Earth and Environmental Engineering & Chemical Engineering at Columbia University. She is also the Director of the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy at the Earth Institute. Her research focuses on sustainable energy conversion pathways with emphasis on integrated carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) and particle technology. The current efforts include the fundamental studies of chemical and physical interactions of natural and engineered materials with CO2 such as the development of novel nano-scale hybrid materials for integrated CO2 capture and conversion. Founded on these new materials and reaction schemes, Park group is also working on innovative fuel synthesis pathways and fluidized bed reactor designs using unconventional energy sources such as shale gas, biomass and municipal solid wastes, while minimizing environmental impacts. Park received a number of professional awards and honors including the NSF CAREER Award (2009), James Lee Young Investigator Award (2010), American Chemical Society WCC Rising Star Award (2017), Janette and Armen Avanessians Diversity Award at Columbia University (2017), International Partnership Award for Young Scientists of Chinese Academy of Sciences (2018), American Chemical Society Energy and Fuels Division - Emerging Researcher Award (2018), PSRI Lectureship Award in Fluidization at American Institute of Chemical Engineers (2018), and U.S. C3E Research Award (2018). Park was also the Chair of the CO2 Utilization Area for the Mission Innovation Workshop on Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage held in September 2017.

Plenary Speech: Thermal Energy Storage using a Fluidized Bed - Heat Transfer Considerations 

Dr. Eric Dening Jia is a Reactor Safety Scientist at Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, specializing in nuclear engineering and renewable energy systems. Since November 2020, he has focused on areas such as TRISO fuel fabrication, containment safety analysis for SMR and LWR, nuclear hybrid energy systems, thermal energy storage, hydrogen production, and multiphase heat and mass transfer. His work encompasses significant experiments and modeling in aerosol behavior, reactor thermal-hydraulics, and energy storage and recovery, contributing to advancements in nuclear technology and safety. 

Previously, as a Research Scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Dr. Jia led the design of high-efficiency fluidized bed heat exchangers and contributed to high-temperature solar thermal power technologies. He also served as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at The University of British Columbia, where he led a biomass pyrolysis project and optimized biochar production processes.

Dr. Jia earned his Ph.D. in Chemical and Biological Engineering from The University of British Columbia, focusing on the study of transport phenomena in fluidized beds. His career is marked by a commitment to enhancing reactor safety and performance, mentoring the next generation of scientists, and actively engaging in international forums to share his insights and expertise.

Syncrude Canada Ltd, Edmonton 

Dr. Michael Wormsbecker has over 10 years of industrial research experience working at the Research Center at Syncrude Canada Ltd. As a senior technical specialist, he has worked primarily in the area of fluid coking leading research projects in the area of fluid coking reliability and process yield. He has also supported multiple plant re-starts, using the fundamentals of fluidization to avert large scope turnarounds. Dr. Wormsbecker has an undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering and did his PhD in fluidization while at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada.