Nano/micro/meso/multifunctional intensification strategies for greener multiphase reactors/materials

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A 2017 study from Nature (Ballagh et al. (2017) Nature 548, S6) charted the correlation of high-quality research with inventions and their influence on industry. At the heart of tomorrow's industry, a tour d'horizon on future research perspectives pinpoints the energy horizon and the mineral supply for sustainable development in conjunction with putting carbon dioxide at work to curb global warming. The proposed Discovery Grant research program adheres to this triptych by devising nano/micro/meso/multifunctional (n3m) intensification strategies for reactors/materials with focus on upgrade/conversion of fossil energy and novel nanofluid/green solvent (mineral) mixing/separation/reaction. A common thread to these systems is their multiscale/multiphase nature whereby the curse of scales challenges our understanding and ultimately the design of reliable technologies. As exemplified from our past realizations, our long term objective is to develop transformative n3m strategies to stimulate the bottlenecking scale(s). Over the next five years, these strategies will be declined in the form of three short-term objectives 1) Nano/microscale multifunctional intensification; 2) Micro/mesoscale intensification for marine applications, 3) Micro/mesoscale intensification for mineral separation.