Industry News
Reed receives prestigious 'Solids Handling Award'
By Wolfson Center for Bulk Solids Handling
Jul 15, 2008 - 1:38:28 PM

London, England -- Prof. Alan Reed of the University of Greenwich has been presented with the Institution of Mechanical Engineers' Bulk Materials Handling Committee's prestigious Solids Handling Award, recognizing his valuable contribution to the powder and bulk handling and processing sector.

Currently Director of Regional Liaison (Kent and Medway) and Professor, Medway School of Engineering at the University of Greenwich, his long and illustrious career has been strongly associated at all stages with research projects that are directly beneficial to industry, working with a long list of industrial partners over the years.

In 1989 he was instrumental in establishing the Wolfson center for Bulk Solids Handling Technology, attracting financial support from the Wolfson Foundation and developing it into one of the world's leading research groups in its field. In excess of £3m of external funding has been attracted to undertake research from organizations such as the EPSRC, DTI, Department of Energy, the Wolfson Foundation, the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, HEFCE, PCFC and NAB, as well as industry.

One of the largest assignments that Prof Reed has been involved in to date is the £1.4m EPSRC funded Quality in Particulate Manufacturing (QPM) project, initiated to develop techniques to preserve the quality of particulate materials, such as cornflakes, muesli and sugars, during manufacturing processes. Carried out in association with the center of Numerical Modelling and Process Analysis, University of Greenwich and Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Surrey, the project attracted an additional £1m of funding from industrial partners that included GlaxoSmithKline, Unilever, Tate and Lyle, United Biscuits, Borax Europe and Morgan.

Particulate handling technology developed during the project has already helped one UK-based multinational pharmaceutical company to cut manufacturing losses by £1m at a new processing plant. QPM is designed to effectively reduce problems that can occur, such as lumping, breakage and separation, when handling particulate materials. Greenwich University's Wolfson center for Bulk Solids Handling Technology has also been highly commended for its work at an IChemE awards ceremony for innovation.

Source: Wolfson Center for Bulk Solids Handling
Web site: http://www.gre.ac.uk/wolfson



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