Chandresh Malde

I am a Senior Principal Scientist in Johnson Matthey. Over the last 29 years, I have been working in the Technology Centre in Sonning Common, South Oxfordshire, UK which is the largest R&D hub for the company providing scientific & technical support to all the Businesses in Johnson Matthey. My background is in colloid science, with expertise in rheology, particle size and shape analysis, zeta potential, interfacial science, and material science. I have a global responsibility in formulation science with experience in coating technologies such as digital printing, screen printing, spray coating and other deposition methods, particle precipitation for large scale catalyst synthesis, hydrogen technologies, pharmaceuticals, powder processing, powder and slurry transport properties. I facilitate the scientific interface between R&D and manufacturing working from small research projects to multi-tonne scale manufacturing lines. Prior to Johnson Matthey, I was based in UCL funded by the European Space Agency working on thin film technology for use in space spectrometers.

Abstract:
Complex Fluids in Catalyst Industry
The vast majority of products in JM are particulate-based. At some stage, the particles will be suspended in a liquid as a slurry, or processed dispersion for a coating application. The formulation can be a complex mixture of active catalyst particles (metal oxides, precious metals, base metals, carbons), inorganic binders, polymers, surfactants, which are dispersed in solvents (aqueous, non-aqueous, or mixed systems). The multiple components in a typical product formulation and their respective interactions result in complex fluid behaviour.
In industry it is often the case that formulations and product characterisation occur at different scales. In R&D, there is greater emphasis on extracting numerous fundamental properties of the formulation or finished product from a wide range of characterisation techniques. In manufacturing processes, it is common practice to reduce the number of measurement metrics in order to qualify and validate a given formulation/product. This talk will discuss some of characterisation methods used in Johnson Matthey’s product portfolio both at the research and manufacturing scales.
There is an obvious requirement for industry to move towards sustainable manufacturing. For many industries this will require considerable momentum shift in capital expenditure to modernise existing manufacturing processes in terms of process efficiency (e.g., powder transport, slurry mixing, milling, drying etc), in-line analytics, and recycling. Automation, statistical data analysis, and data management will play a major role for the improvements necessary in modern manufacturing processes.