Prof Jim Jones staff profile picture

Contact details +6469517142

Prof Jim Jones BE(Hons) 1st Class, MS, PhD

Professor and Research Director

School of Food and Advanced Technology

Professor Jim Jones teaches into the Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering degree and is the Research Director for SF&AT.  He conducts research across a number of fields, principally in thermal processing and particle technology.  This includes current projects such as pyrolysis kinetics, pyrolyser design, life cycle assessment of biochar systems, mastication of food, coating of powders, spray-drying of emulsions, flow of food powders, volcanic pyroclastic density currents and lahars.  Previous projects include agglomeration of milk powder, coating of high fat powders, granulation modelling, secondary nucleation of lactose, truck spreading of fertiliser, and ballistic modelling for topdressing.

Professional

Contact details

  • Ph: 06 356 9099 x 84142
    Location: RD B2.90, Riddet
    Campus: Turitea
  • Ph: 06 356 9099 x 84142
    Location: 3B29, Block 3
    Campus: Wellington

Qualifications

  • Bachelor of Engineering with First Class Honours - University of Canterbury (1988)
  • Master of Science - The University of Idaho (1990)
  • Doctor of Philospohy - University of Cambridge (1999)

Research Expertise

Research Interests

I have a broad range of research interests that cover many aspects of chemical engineering science and interdisciplinary science.  The following list is indicative and explains each field:

Pyrolysis kinetics - the heating of organic carbonaceous materials in the absence of oxygen to make a range of products, char, oil and gas.  This includes biomass, biosolids and plastics.

Pyrolyser design - the design issues around safe design, safe operation and emission control of pyrolysis reactors.

Biochar - the char resulting from pyrolysis that is then sequestered in soil to remove carbon from the atmospheric carbon cycle and improve soil function.  This includes manipulating the properties of biochar to deliver desired functions.

Charcoal - when the char is used for purposes other than biochar, e.g., fuel, reductant, adsorbent.

Granular flow - flow of materials such as pyroclastic flows, lahars, fertilisers (e.g. from topdressing aircraft), food powders (both in the powder flow properties and the design of blending equipment).

Solids handling - the design of the equipment that moves solids.

Mastication - modelling of food as it is chewed by humans.  This includes the analysis of what it means to swallow safely.

Coating and encapsulation - spray-droplet coating of high fat powders, film coating of high-value powders and study of parameters influencing surface composition of food emulsions, slow release coatings for denitrification inhibitors.

Agglomeration, granulation and stickiness - agglomeration of dairy powders, granulation of dairy powders, stickiness of amorphous lactose.

Crystallization - secondary nucleation kinetics of lactose.

Jamming - important in solid object dispenser design, and in devices designed to move solids.

Thematics

21st Century Citizenship, Resource Development and Management, Design – for Commerce, Community and Culture, Health and Well-being, Future Food Systems

Area of Expertise

Field of research codes
Carbon Capture Engineering (excl. Sequestration) (090401): Chemical Engineering (090400):
Earth Sciences (040000):
Engineering (090000): Environmental Engineering (090700): Environmental Technologies (090703): Food Engineering (090802): Food Sciences (090800):
Geology (040300):
Heat and Mass Transfer Operations (091505): Interdisciplinary Engineering (091500): Non-automotive Combustion and Fuel Engineering (incl. Alternative/Renewable Fuels) (090405): Powder and Particle Technology (090406): Turbulent Flows (091508)

Keywords

The following keywords give a comprehensive guide to my interests.  See the desciption of research to learn how they have been applied to particular projects.

Pyrolysis

Thermal Processing

Particle Technology

Granular Flow

Pyrolysis kinetics

Pyrolysis chemistry

Pyrolysis system design

Biochar

Charcoal

Biomass thermal processing

Plastics thermal processing

Biosolids thermal processing

Life cycle assessment

Carbon markets

Biofuels

Volcanic flows

Pyroclastic flows

Pyroclastic density currents

Lahars

Hopper flow

Hopper design

Ballistics

Fertiliser spreading

Mastication modelling

Coating

Encapsulation

Spray coating

Film coating

Powder surface composition

Surface chemistry

Slow release coatings

Agglomeration

Granulation

Stickiness

Crystallization

Secondary nucleation

Jamming

Dispenser design

Research Projects

Current Projects

Project Title: FIET - Smoke Generator - Project 4b

Date Range: 2015 - 2023

Funding Body: Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment

Project Team:

Completed Projects

Project Title: FIET - Robotic Valve Plate - Project 11b

Date Range: 2015 - 2021

Funding Body: Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment

Project Team:

Project Title: FIET - Atmospheric Freezer Drying - Project 8b

Date Range: 2015 - 2019

Funding Body: Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment

Project Team:

Project Title: FIET - Spray Drying - Project 7b

Date Range: 2015 - 2021

Funding Body: Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment

Project Team:

Project Title: FIET - Pomace Fracturing - Project 6b

Date Range: 2015 - 2021

Funding Body: Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment

Project Team:

Project Title: FIET - Meat Tenderisation - Project 3b

Date Range: 2015 - 2021

Funding Body: Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment

Project Team:

Project Title: FIET - Milk Chilling & Farm Vat - Project 1b

Date Range: 2015 - 2021

Funding Body: Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment

Project Team:

Teaching and Supervision

Teaching Statement

I teach into the Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering and Food technology degrees with a particular interest in project-based teaching in the fourth year of CBE with individual inquiry research, team process plant design projects, and from 2015 process improvement from 2015 where global and NZ landmark industries are examined to understand how and why they have changed over the years examining process efficiency, minimisation of hazards and societal pressures.  I also have a keen interest in engineering science fundamentals, having taught across a range of topics over the years, e.g., particle technology, fluid dynamics, mass transfer, drying, heating and ventilation, chemical equilibria and separation processes.

Current Doctoral Supervision

Main Supervisor of:

  • Nadeem Caco - Doctor of Philosophy
    Understanding and fine tuning the parameters that lead to desirable smoke aroma in culinary smoking

Co-supervisor of:

  • Bryan Ybanez - Doctor of Philosophy
    Life cycle sustainability assessment of alternative fruit processing technologies: Investigating the nutrition, food safety, environmental, and socio-economic impacts of mango processing and preservation technologies in the Philippines
  • Daniel Uhle - Doctor of Philosophy
    Effects of Multiphase Turbulence on the Flow and Hazard Behavior of Dilute Pyroclastic Density Currents

Completed Doctoral Supervision

Main Supervisor of:

  • 2017 - Adam Neather - Doctor of Philosophy
    Experimental Investigations of Granular Matter Flow Regimes leading to Insight into Lahar Flow Dynamics
  • 2016 - Georg Ripberger - Doctor of Philosophy
    A Study of the Importance of Secondary Reactions in Char Formation and Pyrolysis
  • 2016 - Eli Gray-Stuart - Doctor of Philosophy
    Modelling Food Breakdown and Bolus Formation During Mastication
  • 2008 - Anna Williams - Doctor of Philosophy
    Instant Milk Powder Production: Determining the Extent of Agglomeration
  • 2005 - Stephen Werner - Doctor of Philosophy
    Air suspension coating of dairy powders: A micro-level approach

Co-supervisor of:

  • 2023 - Merit Mathew - Doctor of Philosophy
    Rate controlling mechanisms in atmospheric freeze drying
  • 2023 - Suchima Gonapinuwala - Doctor of Philosophy
    Commercially scalable fish collagen processing
  • 2023 - Lucas Corna - Doctor of Philosophy
    The Interactions of Pyroclastic Density Currents with Obstacles – a Large-scale Experimental Study
  • 2021 - Muhammad Mohd Firdaus How - Doctor of Philosophy
    Modelling of chewing and aroma release during oral processing: model development, model validation and comprehensive examples for food design
  • 2019 - Siti Nadjiha Mohd Rozali - Doctor of Philosophy
    Atomization of fruit juice with fibres as drying aid: Nozzle
  • 2019 - Ermanno Brosch - Doctor of Philosophy
    Inside pyroclastic surges – a characterisation of the flow behaviour, hazard impact mechanisms and sedimentation processes through large-scale experiments
  • 2017 - Shakti Singh - Doctor of Philosophy
    Interactions of moving particles and bubbles in air: a micro-level process approach
  • 2016 - Horng Saw - Doctor of Philosophy
    Characterization and Flow of Food and Mineral Powders
  • 2016 - Amit Taneja - Doctor of Philosophy
    Spray Dried Milk-Protein Stabilized Emulsions with High Oil Content
  • 2012 - Shailesh Agrawal - Doctor of Philosophy
    Evaporative Crystallization of Alpha-Lactose Monohydrate
  • 2012 - Christine Flynn - Doctor of Philosophy
    The Particle Size Distribution of Solid Foods after Human Mastication
  • 2011 - Scott Hutchings - Doctor of Philosophy
    Oral processing of heterogeneous foods
  • 2011 - Peter Bishop - Doctor of Philosophy
    Polymer coated controlled release agrichemicals as mititgation tools in pastoral farming
  • 2010 - Miles Grafton - Doctor of Philosophy
    Flow on particute material from a topdressing aircraft
  • 2008 - Robert Murray - Doctor of Philosophy
    Variable Rate Application Technology in The New Zealand Aerial Topdressing Industry
  • 2007 - Hayden Lawrence - Doctor of Philosophy
    Adoption of Precision Agriculture Technologies for Fertiliser Placement in New Zealand.
  • 2007 - Jeremy McLeod - Doctor of Philosophy
    Crystallisation of Lactose.
  • 2005 - Patrick Rynhart - Doctor of Philosophy
    Mathematical modelling of granulation processes.