Contact Rylan Cox

Areas of expertise

  • Manufacturing of Functional Materials
  • Sustainable Manufacturing

Background

Initial higher education began at Brunel University with a BEng in Mechanical Engineering, graduating in 2017, it was here is began to focus my work on biomaterials research. I continued education with an MSc in Advanced Materials at Cranfield University where my individual project was the mass production of microalgae through novel continuous technologies. I now continue in a similar field of research to continue to develop novel technologies for the manufacture of promising new green materials such as biofuels and lactic acid which are currently commercially economically infeasible to produce, via process intensification and sustainable feedstocks.

Research opportunities

Featured in the Royal Academy of Engineering for innovative COVID-19 Mass vaccine manufacture: 

https://artsandculture.google.com/story/covid-19-mass-manufacturing-a-vaccine-museum-of-engineering-innovation/6wVBUjd3PCfXwQ?hl=en 

 

Current activities

My current research revolves around the fields of engineering, biology and chemistry with a combination of the 3. 

By engineering continuous flow technology through design, simulation studies (CFD), manufacture, characterisation and optimisation to develop an oscillatory baffled flow bioreactors for scale up purposes and mass production of green materials. New technologies aim to intensify the processes to drive costs down. 

Biological studies of different organisms to direct their metabolic pathways to produce green materials and determine which renewable feedstocks are most suited to each organisms for the production of green materials. Waste feedstocks incorporate a sustainable circular economy approach further reducing costs. 

Chemical studies involve the optimisation of chemically defined medias for the enhances cellular growth of organisms and their intra or extra cellular materials at high quantities. by maximising the chemical components the organisms are grown in to enhance the production of green materials but balancing the total costing.