"Modelling a process forces us to reduce it to the essentials. By doing so, we can unravel and explain even the most complex processes and make them smarter, smaller and more efficient."

Ivo Roghair is an Assistant Professor at the research group Chemical Process Intensification where he works on the computational modeling of novel intensified reactor concepts, such as membrane reactors, chemical looping processes, bubbly flows, and heat integration. His research is focused on the development of numerical tools (multi-scale: 1D reactor models, 3D CFD-based models) while being closely involved in experiments for validation and fundamental understanding (e.g. PIV/DIA measurements on fluidized beds or thermogravimetric analysis for particle conversion studies).

Roghair has recently been involved in an ECHO-STIP project on the origin of the redox kinetics of oxygen carriers for chemical looping processes. Moreover, he is involved in the design, scale-up and operation of fluidized bed membrane reactors. The interactions between chemically active particles, membranes and the complex hydrodynamics in fluidized beds make this a highly challenging research area.

Furthermore, Roghair contributes to the EU project “Intensified-by-Design (IbD®)”, where he investigates how inter-particle forces affect the generic fluidization behavior at elevated temperature using discrete particle simulations. He also leads a case study into intensified fluidized bed dryer concepts. This connects very well with his other research efforts into fluidized bed dryers for pharmaceutical powders and polyolefins, concerning the prevention of degenerate aspects such as fouling or agglomerates formation due to wet or softened particles, triboelectrification, etc.

Ivo Roghair studied Chemical Engineering at the University of Twente (UT, Enschede, The Netherlands) with a focus on process engineering and computer science. Part of his study was an internship at Degussa A.G. (now Evonik Industries A.G.) in Marl (Germany) where he developed a numerical model to simulate trickle-flow reactors. After obtaining his MSc degree in 2007, Roghair started his PhD research at the UT research group Fundamentals of Chemical Reaction Engineering. In 2010 he moved to Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e, The Netherlands) following his supervisors professors Hans Kuipers and Martin van Sint Annaland. He obtained his PhD at TU/e in 2012 with his thesis on 'Direct numerical simulations of hydrodynamics and mass transfer in dense bubbly flows'. Until July 2013 he was a postdoc researcher in the UT research group Physics of Complex Fluids of Prof. Frieder Mugele, where he worked on the numerical modeling of electrowetting processes. He then was appointed Assistant Professor at the TU/e Chemical Process Intensification research group of Prof. Martin van Sint Annaland.

• Dutch Polymer Institute DPI
• Eindhoven Multiscale Institute EMI
• JM Burgerscentrum JMBC