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Erva mate drying

The project develops a solution to a problem currently faced by the Mate tea industry in Brazil, namely high levels of PAHs in the final product due to current processing methods.

The major issue is the direct contact between the smoke and the tea leaves during the drying process, resulting in high levels of carcinogenic PAHs.

An optimum solution for the industry would be one that facilitates the continued use of Biomass as the fuel source but that ensures the production of clean, hot air for drying that is guaranteed to be free of the products of combustion from biomass combustion.

There is currently no conventionally available equipment capable of achieving this and hence an innovative solution is required.

Heat pipe heat exchangers have the ability to guarantee zero cross-contamination between the primary and secondary gases and hence offer a potential solution but have yet to be utilised in this application. The technology has however been proven in other industry sectors and this project will carry out significant adaption and development to provide a suitable solution for the Mate tea industry. 


Meet the Principal Investigator(s) for the project

Professor Hussam Jouhara
Professor Hussam Jouhara - Having worked in academia and the industry, Hussam has unique expertise in working on applied heat exchangers and energy-related research activities with direct support from research councils and various UK and international industrial partners. He has extensive expertise in designing and manufacturing various types of heat exchangers, including heat pipes and heat pipe-based heat exchangers for low, medium and high temperature applications. His work in the field of heat pipe based heat exchangers resulted in novel designs for recouperators, steam generators & condensers and flat heat pipes. These have been implemented across various industries including, but not limited to: food, electronics thermal management and low to high industrial waste heat recovery and Energy from Waste. Over the last few years, he has successfully managed to achieve new designs for industrial waste heat recovery and many thermal systems that have enhanced the performance of various industrials processes in the UK, Europe and world-wide. He is also an elected member of the Senate of Brunel University London.  Throughout his academic and industrial career, he received over £12.2M research funding from various UK/EU based research councils (RCUK & EU H2020) and from British and European industrial partners. He is a published author of academic books with many filed patents in areas related to heat pipes engineering and manufacturing and Energy from Waste systems. He is a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of both Engineers Ireland (Ireland) and IMechE (UK). Hussam is the founder and the Head of the Heat Pipe and Thermal Management Research Group in Brunel University London.  Major projects as a Principal Investigator in Brunel: Technical Director of: Innovative WAter recoverY Solutions (iWAYS) - H2020 Technical Coordinator of: Heat Pipe Technologies for Industrial Applications (ETEKINA) - H2020 Technical Coordinator of: Prefabrication, Recyclability and Modularity for cost reductions in Smart BIPV systems (PVADAPT) - H2020 Climate and cultural based design and market valuable technology solutions for Plus Energy Houses.  (CULTRAL-E) - H2020 Innovative Polymer-Based Composite Systems for High-Efficient Energy Scavenging And Storage (InComEss) - H2020 Design for Resource and Energy efficiency in cerAMic kilns (DREAM) - H2020 STEP – Heat Pipe Design Challenge for Hot Plasma Cooling - UKAEA High-Power and High-Energy Battery Systems with Integrated Structural Thermal Management for Heavy-Duty Applications - Innovate UK Roadmap for Industry - Academia collaboration between Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Argos Cement Company, Brunel University London and Econotherm in heat recovery in large industrial systems - Royal Academy of Engineering Conceptual Feasibility of a Heat Pipe as a Structural and Thermal Member in an Automotive Battery Pack Design - Innovate UK IMproving Power bAttery Cooling Technologies (IMPACT) - Innovate UK Room Temperature Passive Heat Recovery with Heat Pipe - Innovate UK Controllable bidirectional heat recovery device - Knowledge Transfer Network Erva Mate Drying - Innovate UK Active refrigeration shelf with thermal storage - Innovate UK EDUCATION Ph. D. (Mechanical Engineering), 2004, University of Manchester, UK PROFESSIONAL CREDENTIALS Institution of Mechanical Engineers (UK): Chartered Member and Fellow (CEng, FIMechE)  CIBSE (UK): Fellow (CEng FCIBSE) Engineers Ireland: Chartered Engineer and Fellow (CEng, IntPE, FIEI)  Institute of Refrigeration (UK): Member (M.Inst.R)  TEACHING CREDENTIALS P. G. Cert. in Higher Education, 2010, Brunel University, Uxbridge, UB8 3PH, UK. Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA), 2017, UK  

Related Research Group(s)

HPHEs technology2

Heat Pipe and Thermal Management - Thermal management; Energy efficiency development; Emission reduction; Energy recovery; Heat-pipe technology; Heat exchangers; Fluid dynamics.


Partnering with confidence

Organisations interested in our research can partner with us with confidence backed by an external and independent benchmark: The Knowledge Exchange Framework. Read more.


Project last modified 13/10/2023