Centre for Chemical Engineering

Powder Technologies

The objective is to establish the link between macroscopic properties (flowability, reaction progression, etc.) and the microscopic characteristics of particles (size, shape, composition) as well as those of the carrier fluid (flow regime, temperature, pressure, composition, etc.).

These applications include:

• to powders and grains in gaseous media,
• to concentrated pastes such as cements and concretes.

Powder Reactivity

This research area aims to understand, model, and control gas-solid reactions, which are essential in many industrial processes (additive manufacturing, chemistry, metallurgy, energy, etc.). The work focuses on characterizing chemical reactivity, identifying reaction mechanisms, modeling transformations in solids, and simulating industrial reactors.

Image analysis plays a central role in characterizing dispersed media (particles, bubbles, droplets), using advanced methods for detection, measurement, and modeling. These tools enable the generation of digital twins to better understand system evolution and optimize processes at different scales.

Gas Sensors

Research activities focus on the electrical properties of solids interacting with gases, and from an application perspective, involve the development of gas and particle sensors.
This work focuses on the electrical properties of solids interacting with gases, with the aim of developing high-performance gas and particle sensors.
Research areas include:

• the modeling of gas-solid interactions,
• the design of chemical sensors based on semiconductor materials or ionic conductors (via screen printing, inkjet, etc.),
• the laboratory and on-site characterization (test benches),
• the data processing and analysis.

Geo-processes

This research area explores the interactions between geological systems and industrial processes, with an interdisciplinary approach rooted in sustainability challenges.
It includes three sections:

• Phytomanagement: use of plants to stabilize pollutants in soils and as indicators of metal contamination.
• Hydrogeology: modeling of water flows, aquifer vulnerability, and decision-making tools for water resource management.
• Hydrometallurgy: design and optimization of processes for the recovery of solid materials (ores, waste, soils) and the recycling of effluents.

Crystallization

This research area aims to understand and model crystallization phenomena, from thermodynamics to the kinetics of processes such as nucleation, growth, agglomeration, and fragmentation. Research also focuses on the influence of stirring conditions and reactor geometry on crystal size distribution.

The work relies on multi-instrumented reactors, ranging from laboratory scale to semi-industrial pilots, equipped with FBRM, ATR-IR, Raman probes, microscopes, and online chromatographs. Applications include the precipitation of mineral species, the formation of gas hydrates for air conditioning, CO₂ capture, water treatment, and flow assurance in offshore oil transportation.

Image Analysis

This research area develops methods for processing, analyzing, and modeling images of dispersed media (particles, droplets, bubbles, pores), with the aim of characterizing materials and processes.
The work focuses on:

• Image Processing: simplification of images to identify objects of interest via techniques such as filtering and thresholding.
• Morphological Analysis: measurement of object characteristics (size, shape, dispersion) for quantitative description.
• Geometric Modeling: generation of synthetic images (digital twins) reproducing the statistical properties of real images, enabling robust extraction of information on object size and shape.