Academic Centre of Expertise for Sludge (Particulates and Fluids)

Start date: 27/04/22
End date: 26 April 2027
Value: £500,000
Partners and collaborators: Sellafield Ltd., National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL)
Primary investigator: Professor Michael Fairweather
Co-investigators: Bruce Hanson, David Harbottle, Timothy Hunter, Jeffrey Peakall, Lee Mortimer, Alastair Baker
External co-investigators: Martyn Barnes, Stephen Hepworth, Alex Lockwood (all Sellafield Ltd.), Jonathan Dodds (NNL)
Postgraduate students: Jacob Anderson, Guohong Guo, Isabel Latimer, Ahmad Mohamadiyeh, Connor Nolan, Olivia Pickup, Jacob Rumney, Ashley Sibanda

The Centre of Expertise for Sludge (Particulates and Fluids) supports Sellafield Ltd.’s long-term objectives of the safe retrieval, conditioning, storage and ultimate disposal of waste sludge (any mixture of solid particles and liquid}, and efficient processing plant operation.

Impact

The particles with fluids university link began in 2011. This link has significantly increased the successful recruitment of PhD researchers to Sellafield Ltd. and assisted in building their expertise in multiphase systems. Significant other benefits include peer review of Sellafield Ltd.’s position on long-term carbonation of Magnox sludge in 3 m3 boxes, support for experimental work informing skip filling strategies, direct support to mobilisation test material development, development of understanding of sludge-hydrogen hold-up and release mechanisms in support of major waste retrieval programmes, the remote monitoring of waste sludge using acoustic probes on site, and support on behavioural modification techniques implemented using polymers to modify particle-laden flow behaviour to encourage particle deposition in process equipment.

Publications and outputs

https://eps.leeds.ac.uk/chemical-engineering/staff/177/professor-michael-fairweather
https://eps.leeds.ac.uk/chemical-engineering/staff/522/professor-bruce-hanson
https://eps.leeds.ac.uk/chemical-engineering/staff/346/associate-professor-david-harbottle
https://eps.leeds.ac.uk/chemical-engineering/staff/473/dr-timothy-hunter