Xianfeng Fan: Solve processing problems
From Billy Rosendale
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In this video Xianfeng describes his research on particle technology, enhanced oil recovery, CO2 capture, microwave, separation, wastewater, PEPT, focusing on solving problems using colloid-interface science.
Background:
Below are the brief descriptions of my research work. For the detail, please see my publication list.
Enhanced oil recovery and CO2 storage:
My research focuses on the effect of chemical and physical properties of
fluids and pore surfaces on multiphase transport and displacement in
pores. We investigate enhanced oil recovery, CO2 injectivity
and seal capacity at pore scale. Recently, we developed a technique to
measure pore wettability, the displacement of pore fluids by water, CO2
in single pores. We found that pore wettability is very different from
the wettability measured on flat surfaces and in free spaces.
Microwave enhanced gas (CO2) separation and surface modification:
My research focuses on using microwave irradiation to selectively heat
solid at molecular level for adsorbent regeneration and to modify solid
surface wettability in froth flotation. Recently, we received a
research grant from EPSRC to support our research on microwave enhanced
gas separation, and microwave enhanced adsorbent/absorbent regeneration.
Colloid and interfacial phenomena:
My research interests are not only on traditional emulsion, wetting and
solid/bubble attachment, but more importantly on improving the
dispersion or mixing of ultrafine particular materials through
controlling their interparticle force, interfacial energy. A
micromanipulation technique has been developed to measure the
interaction force between micro ice crystals and plant cells.
Particle technology:
The poor reproducibility in secondary pharmaceutical manufacturing is
determined mainly by the nature of pharmaceutical powder. My research
focuses on improving milling, mixing, granulation, coating through
control interfacial interaction, electrostatic force and liquid bridge
force.
For fluidization, we use PEPT to reinterpret the effect of bed material,
operation and bed design on bubbling and circulation fluidization.
Materials separation:
I spent 7 years on solvent extraction, ion exchange, froth flotation and
magnetic separation. An example is a chromatography technique developed
for copper radioisotope separation. Copper radioisotopes have been used
in hospital for nuclear medicine study. Solvent extraction and anion
exchange have been used to separate the isotopes for over 30 years.
However, the radioisotope product contains 9-10 mg/l nickel, which is
too high and put the patients under the risk of chronic disorder
diseases. Through controlling the intermolecular force, the technique we
developed increases the radioisotope recovery from 70 to 100%, and the
Ni in the final products is reduced from 8mg to 0.02mg. It greatly
reduces patients risk to chronic disorder diseases.
Find out more:
Dr Xianfeng Fan, School of Engineering profile: http:///www.eng.ed.ac.uk/about/people/dr-xianfeng-fan
Edinburgh Research Explorer: http://www.research.ed.ac.uk/portal/xfan1
Personal web pages: http://www.homepages.ed.ac.uk/xfan1/
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