Professor David Stuckey

Professor David Stuckey holds a BEng in Chemical Engineering and a master's degree in Biochemical Engineering from the University of Melbourne, and a PhD in Civil Engineering from Stanford University. He is currently a Visiting Professor at King's Department of Engineering. David is also an Emeritus Professor of Biochemical Engineering at the Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, and Visiting Professor at SCELCE and NEWRI, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

David is a leading Biochemical Engineer who is in the top 2% of cited researchers in his field. One main area he has worked in for over 40 years is the anaerobic digestion of wastewaters, and he has extensive expertise. He developed both the novel Anaerobic Baffled Reactor (ABR), and the Submerged Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactor (SAMBR). The latter was awarded the Royal Society Brian Mercer Award for Innovation in 2008. In his initial work he developed the standard bioassay techniques used in the field (BMP, ATA) and is internationally leading in the production and characterisation of Soluble Microbial Products (SMPs) in anaerobic systems where he was awarded a Royal Society of Chemistry Prize in 2012. His work has been extensively cited for work in reactor design, bioassays and SMP production, and has led to the development and use of the ABR (700 units) and SAMBR around the world - technologies which have the potential to improve the UK’s quality of life by reducing the energy costs of treatment, and improving the environment.

 

Research interests

David's other research interests fall into two seemingly disparate but ultimately inter-related areas:

• Downstream Separations in Biotechnology: Selectivity, activity recovery, kinetics and contactor design (Graesser) using reverse micelles (5 nanometer w/o microemulsions) to extract proteins from fermentation broths. Also the study of Colloidal liquid aphrons (CLAs-5 micron o/w emulsions) to extract non-polar (erythromycin) and polar (phenylalanine) solutes from broths, and immobilise enzymes and drugs such as insulin for drug delivery. Interfacial mass transfer in solvent extraction in the presence of proteins/surfactants and cell debris looking at Marangoni instabilities. Extraction of eicosapentanoic Acid (EPA) from marine algae using solvent extraction, silver ion chromatography, and solid phase membrane/silver ion extraction.

 

• Biotransformations: production of chiral epoxides in solid-phase membrane bioreactors. Biphasic enzymatic reactions on colloidal liquid aphrons, as well as the development of crossflow membrane reactors with CLAs.