Dr Tariq Mahmud

Profile

I joined the University of Leeds as an academic staff in Chemical Engineering having done Postdoctoral research in developing CFD based models for combustion of natural gas and pulverised coal in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Imperial College, London. I completed my Bachelor and Masters degrees in Chemical Engineering at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka, and PhD in Chemical Engineering at the University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia. I was awarded a University Research Scholarship for my PhD study on the aerodynamic and combustion characteristics of swirl burners for pulverized coal.

I have been actively engaged in teaching, research and external scholarly activities. Currently, I am the Programme Manager for MSc Advanced Chemical Engineering and MSc Chemical Process Engineering, and Module Leader for Level 3 Design Project. At postgraduate level, I have supervised 22 Masters (Taught course), 6 Masters (by research) and 18 PhD students. I regularly examine PhD candidates as Internal (at Leeds) and External Examiner (at UK and overseas universities).

I organised and jointly chaired the 45^th and 47^th Annual Conference of the British Association for Crystal Growth in July 2014 and June 2016, respectively, and the 12^th International Workshop of the Crystal Growth of Organic Materials (CGOM12) in June 2016 at Leeds. I was a Guest Editor of a special issue on Pharmaceutical Crystallisation Science and Engineering in Pharmaceutics (ISSN 1999-4923), 2017-18. I have published over 100 peer reviewed research papers in journals and conference proceedings and has contributed to 2 book chapters. I have reviewed research grant applications for the UK EPSRC, Academy of Finland, American Chemical Society, National Centre of Science & Techology Evaluation of Republic of Kazakhstan, Qatar National Research Fund, and Research Grants Council of Hong Kong. I have been Joint-Director of a 3-day CPD course on Crystallisation Science & Engineering offered annually since 2016 at Leeds.

Responsibilities

• MSc Advanced Chemical Engineering Programme Manager
• MSc Chemical Process Engineering Programme Manager
• Level 3 Design Project (BEng) Module Manager

Research interests

My current research interests focus on the following areas:

1. CFD for chemical and process engineering operations – Development and validation of integrated CFD-process models using multi-scale modelling approaches for the application to chemical and process engineering operations involving turbulent single-/multi-phase and chemically reacting flows, process heat and mass transfer.

2. Synthesis of particulate product materials

   • Crystallisation process engineering - Development, scale-up and control of crystallisation and reactive precipitation processes for the synthesis of micro- and nano-size particulate products.

   • Spray drying processes – Development of spray droplets drying models coupled with CFD for the simulation of co- and counter-current spray dryers for the  synthesis inorganic and organic particulate products.

3. Carbon capture and advanced H₂ production processes – Development of process models for the design, optimisation and simulation of post-combustion CO₂ capture and H₂ production via sorbent enhanced chemical looping steam reforming processes.

I have developed and led a number of research projects in these areas as Principal- and Co-Investigator with funding from the UK EPSRC, DTI, Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Innovate UK, UKCCSRC, EU and from industries (including AstraZeneca, BNFL Sellafield, GSK, Pfizer, Process Systems Enterprise, Novozymes A/S, Procter & Gamble, and Syngenta).

My research in CFD modelling of chemically reacting single-/multi-phase flows associated with combustion and NOx formation in natural gas, pulverised coal and heavy oil fired furnaces was supported by the EPSRC grants (GR/H15585, GR/J44490, GR/K55929, GR/L68001). The research in crystallisation and spray drying area was funded by EPSRC (GR/R43860/01 [www.leeds.ac.uk/chemeng/CBB/cbb2.html], EP/E040624/1), EPSRC/DTI/BNFL (GR/S00477/01), InnovateUK (TSB101332) and BEIS through the Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative (AMSCI) Programme (Grant ref. 14060, https://www.addopt.org/). A multi-zonal model for spray drying processes developed in the Spray Drying Energy Efficiency Step Change project funded by InnovateUK  was implemented in the gPROMS-FormulatedProducts software of Process Systems Enterprise. These and other externally funded projects were carried out by 11 Postdoctoral and 2 Pre-doctoral researchers.

Qualifications

• BSc Chemical Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka
• MSc Chemical Engineering, BUET, Dhaka
• PhD Chemical Engineering, University of Newcastle, Australia (NSW)

Professional memberships

• Member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE)
• Council Member of the European Network for Crystal Growth
• Committee Member of the British Association for Crystal Growth, 2012-18

Current postgraduate researchers

• Ain Mohd Rosdan
• Samad Rana