Christine FRANCES

Research activities focused on particulate processes: wet grinding, flocculation, crystallization, spray drying, … combining:

• Experimental approaches on the study of operating conditions at process scale (stirred bead mill, spray-dryer, reactor) and the acquisition of data on phenomena at local scale using specific devices (Couette cell, Taylor-Couette reactor, ..)
• Numerical and theoretical approaches (Direct Numerical Simulation, Population Balance Modelling) to describe the phenomena occurring within these processes (breakage, aggregation, flocculation)

Currently, main projects concern:

• Optimization of wet grinding and spray drying processes
• Analysis of the effect of physico-chemical and hydrodynamical conditions on the aggregation and breakage processes  – ANR MORPHING 2020
• Synthesis and treatment of particles dispersed in suspension
• Population balance modelling of particulate processes

Research interest:  Particulate processes and related aggregation-breakage phenomena

Applications: Chemistry, Health care, Water treatment, Biomaterials, …

Research supervision of PhD students:  H. Bel Fadhel (1988), F. Garcia (2001), C. Bordes (2001), D. Touil (2006), M. Tourbin (2006), R. Gers (2009), M.A. Inam (2010), S. Ouattara (2010), M. Vlieghe (2014), S. Kirchner (2015), L. Guérin (2017), P. Oliveira (2018), L. Ruffel (2019), A. Marie (2020), P. J. Navarrette Segado (ongoing), P. Delran (ongoing).

Teaching activities: Characterization of particle size and shape/ Stability of suspensions/ Grinding and Agglomeration processes/ 

Collaborators:

Academic partners : Colleagues from TBI, CIRIMAT, IMFT, IMT, RAPSODEE, LGF, LCA …

Industries and private organisms : Institut de Recherche Pierre Fabre, Malvern Instruments, Unither, Pylote, Orano, IFPEN, CEA, Inalve SAS, ARKEMA, …