Christian van der Sande

Profile

I obtained my B.Sc. in ‘Molecular Science and Technology’ and M.Sc. in ‘Chemical Engineering’ at the Technical University of Delft. As part of my Master’s studies I completed an internship with DSM Food Specialties in Sydney, Australia. I performed my Master’s thesis research with prof. Freek Kapteijn on metal-organic framework membranes for trace carbon dioxide removal from waste streams. During my studies I have been actively involved as teaching assistant for ‘Chemical Reactor Engineering’ and as student supervisor for ‘Leren Onderzoeken 1&2’.

Research

Since August 2020 I am a Ph.D. candidate within the Product & Process Engineering group, where I am working under the supervision of Prof. Ruud van Ommen and Dr. Gabrie Meesters. My research is focused on industrial dense granular flows. The work, which is experimental in nature, aims to attain detailed hydrodynamic insight in stirred bed reactors by means of state-of-the art non-invasive monitoring techniques: X-ray tomography and radioactive particle tracking. It is specifically focused on the horizontal stirred bed reactor (HSBR) in a sub-fluidized state as operated for polypropylene production. The work is carried out in close collaboration with SABIC and the Reactor Institute Delft, and is funded by NWO. This project is part of a larger consortium that consists of 4 research groups from 3 Dutch technical universities and 4 industrial partners. The key focus of this consortium is the combined experimental and modelling approach targeting the development of an integrated well-validated CFD-DEM simulation tool that can handle diverse industrial granular flows.

Student projects

Students with interest in reactor engineering and monitoring techniques are welcome to reach out for inquiries regarding their thesis project.