Our People

Team Leader

Associate Professor Tim Langrish has made a number of unique research contributions to the fields of spray drying and Computational Fluid Dynamics over the past 20 years. He has achieved the first properly-converged, fully three-dimensional, transient simulations of flow patterns inside an industrial milk spray dryer. This achievement is scientifically significant because it applies advanced computational modelling and physical understanding to the solution of important and common industrial process engineering problems. An important application of this contribution is to enhance the operability and availability of spray dryers in the Australian dairy industry. The contribution is being applied in commercial practice by the Australasian dairy company Fonterra.

He has also optimized timber drying schedules, applying fundamental wood science to enable forest companies to improve their drying operations. This is especially important as high-quality timbers become scarcer and the wasteful practices of yesteryear can no longer be tolerated. The results have appeared recently as a major book published by Springer-Verlag. This contribution is unique: previously no single book had adequately covered a basic understanding of wood drying in practice, showing the scientific significance of the work. The industrial significance and application of this work can be judged from the improvements in productivity (over 10%) and quality (over 50% reduction in cracking) that have been achieved for speciality timber such as ironbark.

Research Staff

Don Chiou Postdoctoral Research Associate

Don joined the Drying Technology Group in 2005 after completing studies in Microscopy and Microanalysis with the Sydney University Electron Microscope Unit. His work has been involved in the development of novel nutraceutical food products and crystallisation behaviour of spray-dried powders. These projects are in conjunction with Lang Technologies.

Md. Imtiaz Ul Islam PhD Candidate
Probing the Nanostructure and Resolving the Complications of Drying Multi-Component Particles: Controlling the Migration of Components within Milk Powders

Imtiaz joined the Drying and Process Technology group after graduating from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, in Applied Chemistry and Chemical Technology. His intention to pursue higher studies in the field of engineering made him interested in joining the Drying and Process Technology group as a research student in School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Sydney. His fields of interest are spray drying and other related areas in drying processes. Currently his focus is on in-process lactose and sucrose crystallization during spray drying by changing the operating conditions and other process variables. At the same time he is investigating the particle residence time in the drying chamber.

Sam Smith PhD Candidate
Improving the Modelling of Wood/Water Relationships during Kiln Drying and Reconditioning of Softwoods

Sam joined the Drying and Process Technology group in 2004 on an FWPRDC scholarship after completing an undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering at the University of Sydney. He is researching multiple component solid modelling of drying of softwood timber

Nancy Shuosi Wang PhD Candidate
Surface Modification of Spray-Dried Powders using Proteins to Improve Productivity and Flowability

Nima Yazdan Panah PhD Candidate
Using Fluidized Beds to Crystallize Spray-Dried Powders

Debolina Das PhD Candidate
Scale Up of Crystallization in Drying

Ashok Ganguli PhD Candidate
Intermittent Drying and Solar Kilns for Improving Timber Quality

Roshan Premarajah PhD Candidate
Reaction Processes in Spray Drying and Improving Nutrient Quality in Spray-Dried Bioactive Materials

Perry Johnston MPhil Candidate
Pinch Technology, Energy Reduction and Drying

Recently graduated PhD candidates

Rubiyah Baini
Development of a Framework for Assessing Drying Schedules of Bananas

Kashinath Kota
Experimental and Numerical Studies of Wall Deposition in Spray Dryers

Sherryn Cabardo
Improving the Processing of Timber from Plantation Forests: The Challenge of Managing Variability

Philip Blakemore
Collapse and Reconditioning in Timber Drying

Loren Pordage
The Effects of Biological Variability on the Optimisation of Hardwood Drying Schedules