Staff Profile

Background

I am a Senior Lecturer in Chemical Engineering in the School of Engineering at Newcastle University. My areas of expertise are Process Intensification, Heat Transfer, Waste Heat Recovery Systems and Compact Heat Exchangers.

My Google Scholar profile can be found here

Roles and Responsibilities

Degree Programme Director for BEng and MEng Chemical Engineering Degrees.

Education

PhD (Chemical Engineering), Newcastle University.

MEng (1st Class Hons) Chemical Engineering, Newcastle University.

Memberships

Associate Member of the IChemE

Esteem Indicators

Member of the UK National Heat Transfer Committee.

Organising Committee of the UK Heat Transfer Conference.

Associate Editor of Thermal Science and Engineering Progress (Elsevier).

Reviewer for various high impact journals (Applied Thermal Engineering, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, Chemical Engineering Journal, amongst others).

Co-Author of Compact Heat Exchangers: Selection, Design and Operation (Butterworth-Heinemann, 2016).

Research Interests

Broadly, my research interests centre on intensified transport processes and energy systems, including both fundamental and applied research. This has led to various interdisciplinary research activities in recent years which span a vast range of areas and potential applications including intensified liquid-phase heat transfer, high-flux electronics cooling, development of 3D printed flow reactors, advanced heat pipe technologies, intensified solids handling processes, intensified carbon capture systems, industrial renewable energy integration, process industry waste heat recovery, waste water treatment and fluidic mixing enhancement.

Past and current industrial collaborators include TWI, HIETA, Aavid (Thermal Division of Boyd Corporation), Northumbrian Water, Sanofi, Almirall and Torftech

Research Projects

Currently funded projects: 

• ICED: Intensified Cooling of Electronic Devices. EPSRC New Investigator Award. Approx £310k. [PI]
• Advanced Loop Heat Pipe Technology. EPSRC Case Award with Aavid (Thermal Division of Boyd Corporation). Approx. £120k [PI]
• Developing Large Scale MECs for Treatment of Sludge Return Liquor. EPSRC WIRE CDT Project with Northumbrian Water. Approx. £150k [Co-I]
• SUEHEAT: Sustainable Integration of Waste and Renewable Energy for Sustainable Heat Upgrade in Industry. Horizon Europe/Innovate UK. Approx. EURO 4.9m, EURO 300k to Newcastle University [Newcastle PI]
• METzero: Bringing the water sector towards Net-Zero using Microbial Electrochemical Technologies (METs). Approx. £1m [Co-I]

Past funded projects:

• Development of new cooling technologies for high power electronics by adaptation and miniaturisation of novel concepts from process intensification and utilization of advanced manufacturing techniques such as selective laser melting (SLM). Newcastle University Institute for Sustainability. Approx. £10k. 2016 [PI]

Postgraduate Supervision

Current PhD students: 

• Tayyab Mamtaz "Advanced Loop Heat Pipe Technology". 2020-present. [First Supervisor]
• Sam Settle "Developing Large Scale MECs for Treatment of Sludge Return Liquor". 2020-present [Second Supervisor]
• Henry Baker "Heat sink enhancement via oscillating flows". 2021-present [First Supervisor]
• Leke Owoso "TBC". 2023-present [Second Supervisor.

UG Teaching

CME1023: Transfer Processes 1 (Module Leader)

CME3032: Process Design and Economics

CME3039: Plant Design

CME8107: Process Intensification

CME8117: MEng Research Project

Teaching Projects

• Development of a Physical Computing HE Toolbox for Engineering and Science Students, Internally funded via ULTSEC scheme, Approx. £10k. 2018-20 [Co-I]

• Articles

  • Werner TC, Yan Y, Karayiannis T, Pickert V, Wrobel R, Law R. Medium temperature heat pipes – Applications, challenges and future direction. Applied Thermal Engineering 2024, 236(Part A), 121371.
  • Hockaday J, Law R. Enhancing Heat Transfer in Mini-Scale Liquid-Cooled Heat Sinks by Flow Oscillation—A Numerical Analysis. Energies 2024, 17(11), 2459.
  • Zhang Y, Ullah N, Law R, Reay D, Zivkovic V. Investigation into the hydrodynamics of liquid-solid inclined micro-fluidized beds. Resources Chemicals and Materials 2022, 1(1), 8-15.
  • Figueiredo L, Vieira F, Jamieson O, Reeder J, McLean T, Olsen J, Crapnell R, Whittingham M, Banks C, Law R, Gruber J, Peeters M. Influence of design and material charateristics on 3D printed flow-cells for heat transwer-based analytical devices. Microchimica Acta 2022, 189, 73.
  • McDonough JR, Law R, Reay DA, Groszek D, Zivkovic V. Miniaturisation of the toroidal fluidization concept using 3D printing. Chemical Engineering Research and Design 2020, 160, 129-140.
  • Wrobel R, Scholes B, Hussein A, Law R, Mustaffar A, Reay D. A Metal Additively Manufactured (MAM) Heat Exchanger for Electric Motor Thermal Control on a High-Altitude Solar Aircraft - Experimental Characterisation. Thermal Science and Engineering Progress 2020, 19, 100629.
  • Crapnell R, Canfarotta F, Czulak J, Johnson R, Betlem K, Mecozzi F, Down M, Eersels K, van Grinsven B, Cleij T, Law R, Banks C, Peeters M. Thermal Detection of Cardiac Biomarkers Heart-Fatty Acid Binding Protein and ST2 Using a Molecularly Imprinted Nanoparticle-Based Multiplex Sensor Platform. ACS Sensors 2019, 4(10), 2838-2845.
  • McDonough JR, Oates MF, Law R, Harvey AP. Micromixing in oscillatory baffled flows. Chemical Engineering Journal 2019, 361, 508-518.
  • McDonough JR, Law R, Reay DA, Zivkovic V. Fluidization in small-scale gas-solid 3D-printed fluidized beds. Chemical Engineering Science 2019, 200, 294-309.
  • Livotov P, Chandra Sekaran AP, Mas'udah, Law R, Reay D, Sarsenova A, Sayyareh S. Eco-innovation in process engineering: Contradictions, inventive principles and methods. Thermal Science and Engineering Progress 2019, 9, 52-65.
  • McDonough JR, Armett J, Law R, Harvey AP. Coil-in-Coil Reactor: Augmenting Plug Flow Performance by Combining Different Geometric Features Using 3D Printing. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research 2019, 58(47), 21363-21371.
  • Ahmed SMR, Law R, Phan AN, Harvey AP. Thermal performance of meso-scale oscillatory baffled reactors. Chemical Engineering & Processing: Process Intensification 2018, 132, 25-33.
  • McDonough JR, Murta S, Law R, Harvey AP. Oscillatory fluid motion unlocks plug flow operation in helical tube reactors at lower Reynolds numbers (Re ≤ 10). Chemical Engineering Journal 2018, 358, 643-657.
  • McDonough JR, Law R, Reay DA, Zivkovic V. Intensified Carbon Capture using Adsorption: Heat Transfer Challenges and Potential Solutions. Thermal Science and Engineering Progress 2018, 8, 17-30.
  • Law R, Reay DA, Mustaffar A, McGlen RJ, Underwood C, Ng B. Experimental investigation into the feasibility of using a variable conductance heat pipe for controlled heat release from a phase-change material thermal store. Thermal Science and Engineering Progress 2018, 7, 125-130.
  • Law R, Ahmed S, Tang N, Phan AN, Harvey A. Development of a more robust correlation for predicting heat transfer performance in oscillatory baffled reactors . Chemical Engineering & Processing: Process Intensification 2018, 125, 133-138.
  • Law R, Ramshaw C, Reay D. Process intensification – Overcoming impediments to heat and mass transfer enhancement when solids are present, via the IbD project. Thermal Science and Engineering Progress 2017, 1, 53-58.
  • 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.
  • Wang H, Mustaffar A, Phan A, Zivkovic V, Reay D, Law R, Boodhoo K. A review of process intensification applied to solids handling. Chemical Engineering and Processing 2017, 118, 78-107.
  • Law R, Harvey A, Reay D. A knowledge-based system for low-grade waste heat recovery in the process industries. Applied Thermal Engineering 2016, 94, 590-599.
  • Sturm B, Meyers S, Zhang Y, Law R, Siquerios Valencia EJ, Bao H, Wang Y, Chen H. Process intensification and integration of solar heat generation in the Chinese condiment sector - A case study of a medium sized Beijing based factory. Energy Conversion and Management 2015, 106, 1295–1308.
  • Siqueiros E, Wang YD, Sturm B, Law R, Li KG, Roskilly AP, Huang Y. Waste Utilization in a Spirit Plant as Alternative to Fossil Fuels. Energy Procedia 2014, 61, 1208-1212.
  • Law R, Harvey A, Reay D. Opportunities for low-grade heat recovery in the UK food processing industry. Applied Thermal Engineering 2013, 53(2), 188-196.

• Authored Book

  • Hesselgreaves JE, Law R, Reay DA. Compact heat exchangers: Selection, design and operation: Second Edition. Oxford: Elsevier Inc, 2016.

• Book Chapter

  • Livotov P, Sekaran APC, Law R, Mas'udah, Reay DA. Systematic Innovation in Process Engineering: Linking TRIZ and Process Intensification. In: Chechurin, L; Collan, M, ed. Advances in Systematic Creativity. Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, pp.27-44.

• Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstracts)

  • Russo Abegão F, Venn-Wycherley M, Vasilchenko A, Dyson M, O'Malley C, Law R, Adamson H, Joyce S, Norman R, Goss J, Devlin M. Teaching Students How to Code Using Physical Computing Tools. In: ChemEngDay 2019. 2019, Edinburgh, UK.
  • Livotov P, Masiudah M, Sekaran C, Prasad A, Law R, Reay D. Ecological Advanced Innovation Design Approach for Efficient Integrated Upstream and Downstream Processes. In: International Conference on Engineering Design 2019. 2019, Delft, The Netherlands: Cambridge University Press.
  • Law R, Reay DA. Towards standardisation of process intensification in solids-handling processes - the IbD Platform. In: AIChE 2018 Spring Meeting and 14th Global Congress on Process Safety. 2018, Orlando, USA: AIChE.

• Note

  • Szymanski P, Law R, McGlen RJ, Reay DA. Correction: Szymanski et al. Recent Advances in Loop Heat Pipes with Flat Evaporator. Entropy 2021, 23, 1374. Entropy 2022, 24(2), 162.