Research Interests

The research interests of DR PRAKASH lie in the general area of multiphase particulate systems. He is involved in design, modeling and performance enhancement studies of these reactors systems. His expertise is three-phase slurry bubble column reactors is well recognized in both industry and academia. These reactors have found applications in different processes in industry such as production of environmentally benign fuels, biochemical processes and environmental pollution control.

The experimental research program launched by Dr. Prakash at UWO has been contributing to the understanding of mixing patterns for proper hydrodynamic modeling and design of three-phase slurry bubble column reactors. Heat and mass transfer studies in these systems are further aiding in design improvements. Dr. Prakash has assisted several companies over last ten years (USDOE, Bechtel, AECL) to develop, design and improve multiphase reactors for different applications.

Research teams of Dr. Prakash have developed probes and techniques for measurement of local slurry concentrations and local and instantaneous heat transfer coefficients. These measurements have been used to develop and verify circulation pattern and mixing models and should prove useful for further investigations with different arrangement of internals such as gas distributors, agitators, heat transfer tubes etc.

To find out more about Dr. Prakash's research, please visit http://www.powders.ca.