• Carbon capture using solid sorbents and fluidized bed technology
• BECCS (Bio-energy with Carbon Capture and Storage), Direct Air Capture
• Process simulation of power plant systems integrated with thermal energy storage and carbon capture
• Efficient energy systems such as CHP and heat pump/engine
• Gasification, carbonization, pyrolysis and combustion of biomass materials and wastes
• CFD-DEM simulation of particulate systems such as fluidized bed reactors
• Thermal energy storage technologies

Mechanical Science (Lev 4)

Fluid Machanics and Thermodynamics (Lev 4)

ThermoFluids (Lev 5)

Statics and Dynamics (Lev 4)

Dr Wenbin Zhang is currently a Senior Lecturer in School of Engineering and Computer Science in University of Hertfordshire. He obtained both Bachelor and PhD of Engineering from State Key Lab of Coal Clean Combustion technology (SKLCCC), Dept. of Thermal Engineering, Tsinghua University in China. He had been working as a Research Fellow in Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, University of Birmingham, University of Nottingham and University of Warwick. His research expertise lies in Fluidized bed technologies, carbon capture using solid adsorbents, biomass gasification and combustion, CFD/DEM modelling etc.  He is an invited reviewer for several international scientific journals including Chemical Engineering Science, Advances in Fluids Mechanics, Bioscience and Biomedical Engineering, International journal of Thermodynamics and Catalysis. He is also an editorial board member of International Journal of Energy and Power Engineering, Energies and IntechOpen Publishing. He is a Fellow of Higher Education Academy of UK. He holds academic memberships of World Society of Sustainable Energy Technologies (WSSET), UK Carbon Capture and Storage Research Centre (UKCCSRC). He has delivered plenary addresses/keynote papers and invited lectures/seminars at more than 30 international conferences/workshops. 

Details of the projects he has been involved are listed below:

EPSRC project: Driving Ultra-Supercritical (USC) Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFB) Power Plants to Better Fuel Flexibility and Higher Efficiencies: Combustion, Materials and Modelling Challenges (CMM)

• Steady-state and dynamic process simulation of the whole USC/CFB system
• Optimisation of the process operation for efficient and flexible operation of a USC/CFB power plant, such as system integration with Thermal Energy Storage (TES) and carbon capture and storage (CCS).

EPSRC Project: A Revolutionary Rotary Ericsson Heat Pump/Engine

• Design, construction and testing of a laboratory scale prototype of an innovative Ericsson heat pump
• Computational simulation and optimization of thermodynamic performance of the new proof of concept design  

EPSRC Project: Innovative Adsorbent Materials and Processes for Integrated Carbon Capture and Multi-pollutant Control for Fossil Fuel Power Generation (EP/G063176/1 )

EPSRC Project: Effective Adsorbents for Establishing Solids Looping as a Next Generation NG PCC Technology (EP/J020745/1)

• Development of new functional adsorbents (amine supported and activated carbon) for CO₂ capture
• Performance evaluation of the most promising adsorbents for carbon capture in fixed-bed and fluidized bed reactors
• Coal-fired and Natural gas-fired power plant flue gas capture and direct air capture
• Conceptual process design and modelling of solid looping technology for continuous carbon capture at industrial scale and power plants

EPSRC Project: Mop Fan and Electrofilter: An innovative approach for cleaning product gases from biomass gasification

• Design and assembly of a bubbling fluidized bed gasifier for wood chips gasification
• To investigate the performance of the mop fan with respect to the removal of particles, ammonia and additional water soluble gas contaminants by adapting the design of the mop fan to the application of cleaning of product gases from biomass fluidized bed gasifiers

EPSRC Project:  Flow, margination and adhesive interaction of blood cells with the vessel wall – An interdisciplinary approach

• Adaptation of a 3-D CFD-DEM computational code which has been used in fluidized bed simulations into a liquid-solid (plasma-blood cells) system in a microvessel channel
• Simulation of movement and individual behaviour of blood cells in venous vessel

“21Century COE (Center of Excellence) ESTeC (Evolution and Survival of the Technology based Civilization) Project” in Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT), Tokyo, Japan

• Economic evaluation and application of sustainable energy: biomass – gasification and carbonization
• Production, evaluation and application of high-yield charcoal powders from woody biomass into a domestic combustor and a gas turbine
• A novel realistic particle collision model adopted in CFD-DEM simulation