Role
Dr Wenbin Zhang is a Senior Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering in the School of Science and Technology at Nottingham Trent University.
He is the Module Leader for the UG Year 1 Module Thermofluids and is also teaching Year 1 Module Engineering Science Fundamentals.
He is the academic tutor for MSc placement and supervisor of several MSc and PhD projects.
Dr Zhang is involved in the research activities in the sustainable energy technologies.
Career overview
Dr Wenbin Zhang obtained both Bachelor and PhD degree of Engineering from State Key Lab of Coal Clean Combustion technology (SKLCCC), Department of Thermal Engineering, Tsinghua University in China. He had been working as a postdoctoral Fellow in Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology in Japan. He moved to the UK and had been working as a research fellow in University of Birmingham, University of Nottingham and University of Warwick. From 2018, Dr Zhang became a Senior Lecturer in University of Hertfordshire. Currently he is a senior Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering in Nottingham Trent University.
Details of the projects he is and had been involved are listed below:
NTU Strategic Research Fund: Deep decarbonization for sustainable foundation industries - From cost to profit
PhD Projects as supervisor:
Greener hydrogen production from high moisture containing biomass
Effectiveness of smart cooling systems: Performance evaluation of heat sinks employing various unitary and hybrid nanofluids
Machine Learning Algorithms to Predict Flow and Heat Transfer in Microchannel
EPSRC project: Driving Ultra-Supercritical (USC) Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFB) Power Plants to Better Fuel Flexibility and Higher Efficiencies: Combustion, Materials and Modelling Challenges (CMM)
EPSRC Project: A Revolutionary Rotary Ericsson Heat Pump/Engine
EPSRC Project: Innovative Adsorbent Materials and Processes for Integrated Carbon Capture and Multi-pollutant Control for Fossil Fuel Power Generation (EP/G063176/1)
EPSRC Project: Effective Adsorbents for Establishing Solids Looping as a Next Generation NG PCC Technology (EP/J020745/1)
EPSRC Project: Mop Fan and Electrofilter: An innovative approach for cleaning product gases from biomass gasification
EPSRC Project: Flow, margination and adhesive interaction of blood cells with the vessel wall – An interdisciplinary approach
Research areas
- Carbon Capture, Storage and Utilization (CCUS):
‐ Integration of CCUS with power/industrial sectors
‐ Mineralization based CCUS technology
‐ Negative carbon emission technologies such as Bioenergy with CCS (BECCS) and Direct Air Capture (DAC)
‐ Solid adsorbents in fluidized bed reactors - Industrial Decarbonization:
‐ Integration of Carbon Capture and Utilization for deep decarbonization
‐ Alternative low carbon energy fuels (Bioenergy, Hydrogen, ammonia)
‐ Improvement in process energy efficiency (Novel Heat Pumps; Waste Heat Recovery and Combined Heat & Power)
‐ Integration of thermal energy storag - Bioenergy Production and Utilization:
‐ Hydrogen production from biomass, industrial and agricultural wastes
‐ High value‐added carbon materials via carbonization and activation
‐ Advanced gasification/combustion technologies utilizing biomass - Computational simulation:
‐ Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
‐ Discrete Element Method (DEM) in multiphase particulate systems
‐ Process simulation of overall thermal efficiency
‐ AI driven smart energy technologies
External activity
Invited Reviewer for EPSRC grant applications;
Invited Reviewer for Horizon Europe grant applications;
Invited Reviewer for several international scientific journals:
- Chemical Engineering Science
- MDPI journals (Energies, Materials etc)
- Advances in Fluids Mechanics
- International Journal of Energy and Power Engineering
Academic memberships of
- World Society of Sustainable Energy Technologies (WSSET)
- UK Carbon Capture and Storage Research Centre (UKCCSRC)
- International Energy Agency
Publications
- Overview of Recent Trends in Microchannels for Heat Transfer and Thermal Management Applications, Harris, M., Wu, H., Zhang, W. & Angelopoulou, A., 30 Nov 2022, In: Chemical Engineering and Processing - Process Intensification. 181, 18 p., 109155.
- Staggered oriented airfoil shaped pin-fin heat sink: Investigating the efficacy of novel water based ferric oxide-silica hybrid nanofluid, Babar, H., Wu, H., Ali, H. M., Shah, T. & Zhang, W., 15 Sep 2022, In: International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer. 194, 20 p., 123085.
- Min, C., Yang, X., He, J., Wang, K., Xie, L., Onwude, D., Zhang, W. & Wu, H.: Experimental investigation on heat recovery from flue gas using falling film method, Thermal Science and Engineering Progress, 13 Jan 2021
- Wenbin Zhang, Chenggong Sun, Colin E. Snape, Xuezhong Sun, Hao Liu: Cyclic performance evaluation of a polyethylenimine/silica adsorbent with steam regeneration using simulated NGCC flue gas and actual flue gas of a gas-fired boiler in a bubbling fluidized bed reactor, International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, 95: 102975, 2020 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2020.102975)
- Wenbin Zhang, Chris Benson, Andrew Cunningham, Saffa Riffat: Parametric analysis on the performance of a revolutionary rotary Ericsson heat pump/engine, International Journal of Low Carbon Technologies, 14(1): 36-43, 2019
- Decai Li, Wenbin Zhang, Jihong Wang: Flexible operation of supercritical power plant via integration of thermal energy storage, Chapter in Book “Power Plants in the Industry”, ISBN 978-953-51-6314-5, Published by IntechOpen, 2018
- Wenbin Zhang, Chenggong Sun, Colin E. Snape, Robin Irons, Simon Stebbing, Tony Alderson, David Fitzgerald, Hao Liu: Process simulations of post-combustion CO2 capture for coal and natural gas-fired power plants using a polyethyleneimine/silica adsorbent, International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, 58(2017): 276-289
- Wenbin ZHANG, Chris BENSON, Andrew CUNNINGHAM, Saffa RIFFAT: Parametric analysis on the performance of a revolutionary rotary Ericsson heat pump/engine. 16th International Conference on Sustainable Energy Technologies, 17-20 July 2017, Bologna, Italy.
- Wenbin Zhang, Hao Liu, Yuan Sun, Janis Cakstins, Chenggong Sun, Colin E. Snape: Parametric study on the regeneration heat requirement of an amine-based solid adsorbent process for post-combustion carbon capture, Applied Energy, 168(2016): 394-405
- Wenbin Zhang, Hao Liu, Chenggong Sun, Trevor C. Drage, Colin E. Snape: Capturing CO2 from ambient air using a polyethyleneimine-silica adsorbent in fluidized beds. Chemical Engineering Science, 116 (2014): 306-316
- Wenbin Zhang, Hao Liu, Chenggong Sun, Trevor C. Drage, Colin E. Snape: Performance of polyethyleneimine-silica adsorbent for post-combustion CO2 capture in a bubbling fluidized bed. Chemical Engineering Journal, 251 (2014): 293-303
- Chenggong Sun, Wenbin Zhang, Hao Liu: Chapter III Environmental Concerns Regarding CO2, in Book “Catalytic Activation of CO2”, edited by Distinguished Professor Steven L Suib in USA. The contribution of this chapter is invited by Professor Suib, book published in 2013 by Elsevier.
- Wenbin Zhang, Hao Liu, Irfan Ul Hai, York Neubauer, Philipp Schröder, Holger Oldenburg, Alexander Seilkopf, Axel Kölling: Gas cleaning strategies for biomass gasification product gas, International Journal of Low Carbon Technologies (Oxford University Press), volume 0, Pages 1-6, 2012
- Evaluation of lubrication force on colliding particles for DEM simulation of fluidized beds, Zhang, W., Noda, R. & Horio, M., 27 Oct 2005, In: Powder Technology. 158, 1-3, p. 92-101 10 p.
Sustainable Energy Technologies
Net Zero Carbon Emission Technologies to meet the 2050 UK Goals
