Professor Colin Webb
BSc, PhD
CEng, CSci, FIChemE, FIAFoST
Roles: Colin has been Head of School since 2005 and was previously Head of Department from 2000 to 2004. He is also Director of the Satake Centre for Grain Process Engineering (SCGPE) a role he has held since its inception in 1994. Prior to 1994 he had been a Senior Lecturer at UMIST, having first joined the department as a Research Associate in 1979. Colin's research interests are focused on establishing aspects of grain process engineering. The SCGPE was established in order to provide research and post-graduate training relevant to the cereals processing industries and conducts research into primary and secondary processing aspects as well as into novel uses of cereals. In the 'primary processing' area, flour milling is being studied with a view to optimizing the process, particularly through the use of recycle. The application of chemical engineering principles in the development of design methodologies is also being investigated. In the 'novel uses' area, research efforts are being directed to the production of petrochemical and other chemical industry substitutes, with the aim of establishing cereals as a major renewable resource for chemicals production. The vast majority of cereal grains are currently produced for food or feed purposes, but there is an increasing interest in industrial uses. A wide range of both food related and industrial products can be produced through the bioconversion of cereal grains. Such processes have the advantage of being both clean and sustainable. A major advantage in using grain over other vegetable sugar sources is the ability to store the raw material for long periods of time. However, in most cases the grain starch must first be hydrolysed to simpler sugars before it is readily fermentable. The use of fungi to carry out this hydrolysis continuously, as well as releasing other nutrients, is part of a total processing strategy that is being applied to a range of potential products.
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