Magnetic Resonance: From the Laboratory to Industrial Practice - Extension

The Magnetic Resonance Research Centre (MRRC) is established as an international centre of expertise in applying magnetic resonance (MR) technique to engineering research challenges. MR has the advantage of being able to make chemically-specific measurements of the distribution of chemical species and different phases of materials, as well as measurements of the velocity with which such species are moving. It is able to do this in optically opaque environments, where optically-based measurements cannot be used. In its simplest terms, MRRC takes the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) techniques that are used in hospitals and extends those techniques to study the far more magnetically heterogeneous systems (relative to human subjects) that are characteristic of engineering processes. In the period of the current Platform Grant we have been able to develop an MR method which can actually improve on methods used in medical MRI in application to human subjects; our initial work in this area has focused on functional MRI in which brain responses are mapped when certain functions are performed.

However, our over-riding motivation is to use MR to gain a greater understanding of the way chemical processes operate so that they can be designed to operate more efficiently and therefore use less energy and produce less waste. This proposal aims to develop platforms in two areas.

The first area seeks to take mathematical and numerical approaches from signal processing theory and extend them to enable completely new MR measurements to be made. An example might be to develop a new measurement capability which could be used on a process line in an industrial environment to monitor whether a product is being made to the correct specification. By developing MR measurements that can work on portable, robust, low-cost hardware operating at low magnetic fields, completely new applications of MR become possible. However to do this we have to think of new strategies for acquiring MR data. In this project, we will work closely with mathematicians to make sure that the methods we develop have firm mathematical foundations and can therefore be trusted in real process applications.

The second part of the project focuses on maximising the potential use of a new catalytic reactor environment we have constructed to sit inside the MR magnet. The ability to map chemical composition inside a working reactor provides a unique research resource, which we will then offer in collaborative projects to researchers in the UK and internationally. A research worker will be dedicated to working with potential academic and industrial collaborators to identify candidate reactions and undertake feasibility studies to help these collaborators optimise the scope of collaborative projects which we will then seek full project funding for.

Enhancing the knowledge economy: This project seeks to provide new measurement capabilities which allow both academics and industrial researchers working in the process industries and, in particular, in the field of catalysis, to base their process design on real measured characteristics of the system they are designing, as opposed to relying on empirical approaches and engineering correlations. To some extent, current approaches serve us well but where we lack knowledge about these very complicated multi-component, multi-phase systems we end up having to 'over-design' the process to ensure that it delivers what we want, safely. The implication of this is that process units may be much larger than is required and therefore have a much bigger energy (carbon ) footprint than that really needed to deliver a given product. To enhance the translation of our research to the end-user the group has strong links with industrial partners - in many cases, the collaborating company actually places their employees into our laboratory for short, and sometimes long (years), periods of time.
Development and utilisation of new and innovative methodologies: A number of researchers from the group at MRRC go on to take academic positions and work in industry where they continue their work on magnetic resonance methods in process applications and in catalysis. We work increasingly in multi-disciplinary areas, the latest of which is exploring the interface with medical MRI where we have identified opportunities for taking the methods currently being developed, and which will be developed further in this work, into medical applications. This work is also opening up and contributing to collaborative research with mathematicians and computer scientists; these areas show much promise and we hope to expand our activities in these areas. It is very exciting that we are now able to establish research activities with leading mathematicians and computer scientists bringing research workers together across disciplines to address research challenges in the process industries.

This project targets two particular types of new measurement capability: (i) A special sample environment and new MR methods to map chemical conversion inside a working reactor. This will allow us to understand how catalytic processes operate under working conditions and hence, to design the chemical and physical form of catalysts to improve activity and selectivity. (ii) We are also exploring the use of methods of signal processing and data acquisition from areas such as compressed sensing, Bayesian and machine learning methodologies to identify completely new approaches to acquiring magnetic resonance data. These developments can be used in two ways. First, by acquiring data on much faster timescales we can understand the behavior of real processes much better. Second, we open up opportunities for making magnetic resonance measurements at low magnetic field. This means that for certain applications we may no longer need to use a very expensive, heavy superconducting magnet - instead we can use a portable, low-cost, easy-to-use electromagnetic or permanent magnet. This could have significant impact in areas of industrial process control, particularly where that system is optically opaque and cannot be studied by other established process analytic tools.

Delivering and training highly skilled researchers: The researchers we produce are highly valued by employees with many of our researchers going to work in the process industries. As well as being trained in state-of-the art measurement science and data analysis, each researcher is also trained in an area of application - such as catalysis or food/pharmaceutical manufacture. Because our projects require many skill sets, our researchers are trained in team working and often excel in project manager positions. A number of former members of the group have also taken up academic positions both in the UK and overseas.