Prof Marc-Olivier Coppens, Dr Victor Francia and Kaiqiao Wu from the Centre of Nature Inspired Engineering presented at the 8th World Congress on Particle Technology (WCPT), held in Orlando, USA from 22-26 April and was in conjunction with the 2018 AIChE Spring Meeting & 14th Global Congress on Process Safety.  

The conference is held once every 4 years to stimulate discussions at the forefront of research in particle science and technology.  

At the event, Prof Marc-Olivier Coppens presented a plenary talk on, 'Nature-Inspired Chemical Engineering - a Pathway to Innovation in Particle Technology'. The presentation illustrated the thematic, mechanistic approach underpinning nature-inspired chemical engineering (NICE) and applying it to timely problems in particle technology.   

Prof Coppens also presented an educational workshop with Prof Daniel Lepek from The Cooper Union on Nature Inspired Chemical Engineering (NICE) applications in particle technology.   

Together they discussed the NICE methodology and the development of a NICE course for senior undergraduate and postgraduate engineering students. 

During a session titled, 'Fundamentals of Fluidization I', CNIE members Victor Francia and Kaiqiao Wu also give talks on:    

  • Structured Flow in Gas-Solid Fluidized Beds: Particle Clustering and Bubble Self-Organisation 
  • Structured Flow of Bubbles in Pulsed Fluidized Beds: Pattern Stabilization and Propagation