Staff Profile
Dr Jonathan McDonough
Research Associate
- Email: jonathan.mcdonough@ncl.ac.uk
- Telephone: 0191 208 5747
- Address: School of Engineering,
3rd Floor, Merz Court,
Newcastle University,
Newcastle upon Tyne,
NE1 7RU
Background
Education
- PhD Chemical Engineering, Newcastle University, 2013-2017
- MEng (Hons) Chemical Engineering, Newcastle University, 2009-2013
Professional Memberships
- Associate Member of IChemE
Awards
- National SET award winner for best chemical engineering student, sponsored by AWE (2013)
- MEng Top Student Award (2013)
- William Benedict Coleman Scholarship recipient (2010)
Areas of expertise
- Mesoscale reactors
- Flow chemistry
- Reaction engineering
- 3D printing
- Fluid mechanics
Research
Research Interests:
- Reaction engineering
- Flow chemistry
- Fluid mechanics
- Reactor design
- Meso/micro-fluidics
- 3D printing
- Carbon capture
Current Research Project:
Novel adsorbents applied to integrated energy-efficient industrial CO2 capture [EP/N024540/1]
The UK Government has an ambitious target to reduce CO2 emissions by 80% by 2050. Industrial processes account for 25% of total EU CO2 emissions, and moreover, they are already operating at or close to the theoretical limits of efficiency. Therefore, CO2 capture and storage (CCS) is the only technology that can deliver the required emission reductions. However, efficiency and capital cost penalties associated with CO2 capture are hindering the deployment of CCS. There is an opportunity here for industrial CCS to operate at a wider range of temperatures and to integrate available thermal streams with heat required for on-site sorbent regeneration.
This multidisciplinary proposal unites leading engineers and scientists from the Universities of Heriot-Watt, Hull and Newcastle to realise our vision of integrating novel hydrotalcite solid sorbents with advanced heat integration processes for industrial CO2 capture. Hydrotalcite materials present a big potential for industrial CCS, as they show faster kinetics and better regenerability over other high temperature sorbents; however, their application in industrial capture processes remains largely unexplored. We will research novel methodologies to enhance and tailor performance of hydrotalcites for CO2 capture over a wide range of conditions needed in industrial processes. We will also address the challenge of designing a suitable process that combines the roles of heat management (heat recovery for desorption) and mass transfer (ad- and desorption) across a range of process conditions (temperature, pressure, humidity, gas constituents) with a degree of flexibility that is economically and technically viable.
Links:
Publications
- McDonough JR, Phan AN, Harvey AP. The mesoscale oscillatory baffled reactor facilitates intensified kinetics screening when the solvent is removed. Chemical Engineering and Processing - Process Intensification 2018, 129, 51-62.
- McDonough JR, Law R, Harvey AP. Intensification of Transport Phenomena using 3D Printed Fluidic Oscillators [Keynote Lecture]. In: 10th World Congress of Chemical Engineering. 2017, Barcelona, Spain.
- McDonough JR, Ahmed SMR, Phan AN, Harvey AP. A study of the flow structures generated by oscillating flows in a helical baffled tube. Chemical Engineering Science 2017, 171, 160-178.
- McDonough JR, Law R, Kraemer J, Harvey AP. Effect of geometrical parameters on flow-switching frequencies in 3D printed fluidic oscillators containing different liquids. Chemical Engineering Research and Design 2017, 117, 228-239.
- McDonough JR, Phan AN, Reay DA, Harvey AP. Passive isothermalisation of an exothermic reaction in flow using a novel "Heat Pipe Oscillatory Baffled Reactor (HPOBR)". Chemical Engineering and Processing: Process Intensification 2016, 110, 201-213.
- McDonough JR, Phan AN, Harvey AP. Rapid process development using oscillatory baffled mesoreactors - A state-of-the-art review. Chemical Engineering Journal 2015, 265, 110-121.