Mercator Fellows
Mirco Magnini
Dr. Magnini is Lecturer at the University of Nottingham, UK (https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/research/groups/fluids-and-thermal-engineering/meet-the-team/mirco.magnini) and has expertise in the numerical simulation and theoretical modelling of multiphase flows, phase change, heat transfer, and thin liquid film using lubrication theory. He has worked extensively on the numerical simulation of flow boiling within microchannels using both commercial (see Magnini et al, Int J Heat Mass Transf 59 (2013) 451) and opensource (Magnini et al., Int J Heat Mass Transf 150 (2020) 119322) CFD packages augmented with self-developed functions, and will collaborate with Subproject 1 by sharing his related expertise in numerical modelling, exchanging numerical solvers and validation data.
After attending the kick-off meeting for the second funding phase in December 2019, Mr. Magnini was not able to visit the research group again in presence until October 2021 due to the pandemic. The second longer visit took place in June 2022. Here, Mr. Magnini supported the coordination between experiments and numerics and contributed to improvements of the numerical implementation. The work has so far resulted in a joint conference paper presented at the 7th World Congress on Momentum, Heat and Mass Transfer (MHMT'22) and is currently being extended to a journal publication. Mr. Magnini has also participated in several semi-annual meetings and scientific events of the ProMiSe research group including the SENFLOW Symposium.
Oana Luca
Professor Luca (https://www.colorado.edu/chemistry/oana-luca) is on the faculty at University of Colorado Boulder in Boulder, CO, US with expertise in catalysis, synthetic organic and inorganic chemistry, in the field of electrochemical synthesis and process chemistry. There, she develops new chemical and electrochemical reactions and catalysts. She studies mechanism to inform optimization and scaleup and is interested in the development of new methodologies and techniques to inform mechanistic understanding (ACS Catal. 2020, 10, 3, 1961–1968, Molecules 2020, 25(12), 2742, Dalton Trans., 2020,49, 2053-2057). She works with the ProMiSe Team on the development of reactor technology for electrochemical and photochemical processes.
Due to the pandemic, the planned stays of Ms. Oana Luca as Mercator Fellow in July-August 2020 and 2021 could not be realized. As a substitute, several online meetings where electrochemical syntheses in microfluidic systems and electrochemical methods for the methods for CO2 extraction from air. It is now planned, with more time in advance, to organize a visit in July - August 2023, during which Ms. Luca will be accompanied by members of her working group.