Professor of Chemical Reaction, University of Cambridge

Chair, CSaP Management Committee

Professor John Dennis heads the Combustion and Granular Physics Group in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology (CEB), University of Cambridge. The Group undertakes fundamental research in three themes: (1) Chemical Looping Combustion for the innovative combustion and gasification of fossil and renewable fuels, with separation of pure CO2 without energy penalty. (2) Physics of Granular Flows. Processes in (1) depend on efficient gas-solid reactions and solids flow and the group has an internationally-respected reputation for fluidisation, using innovative combinations of new (e.g. Magnetic Resonance Imaging, MRI) and existing (e.g. Particle Image Velocimetry) techniques, underpinned by theoretical approaches (e.g. Discrete Element Modelling, DEM). (3) Sustainable Transport Biofuels, which embraces system-level studies of sustainability and Fischer-Tropsch approaches for biomass to liquid fuel.

John was a Lecturer in the Dept. of Chemical Engineering 1984 - 1989, having previously been an undergraduate (1st Class, Chemical Engineering Tripos) and PhD student there. During this period he published on the control of sulphur emissions from fluidised bed combustors and on gas combustion in fluidised beds. John left Cambridge to become an engineering consultant in 1989 specialising in the solution of process or economic problems, with areas of technical interest including heat and mass transfer in reactors, combustion, and fluidised bed reactions. He returned to the University and was a University Lecturer from October 2002, Senior Lecturer from October 2004, Reader from October 2008, Professor of Chemical Reaction Engineering from October 2012, Head of Department (CEB) from October 2015 and Head of the School of Technology from December 2018 to October 2023.

Recent areas of research include the fluidised bed gasification of biomass, fundamental studies of fluidised bed hydrodynamics using MRI, ECT and PIV, discrete element modelling of fluidised beds, chemical looping reactions, novel fluidising techniques for processing fuels with a high content of volatile matter and gas-to-liquid reactions for biofuels. A particular area of promise is recent research on using chemical looping to undertake selective oxidation reactions, to make them a safer prospect for industry. An important example is a new method for producing ethylene oxide safely for point-of-use applications. John has published > 190 papers on combustion, combustion-related topics, chemical looping and the physics of fluidisation.