Timo Merbach, M.Sc.

 


Eißendorfer Str. 38

Building O, Room 1.008

21073 Hamburg

Phone +49 40 42878 - 2031

Mail Timo Merbach


 

Biography

Timo Merbach studied Process Engineering at Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH) from 2017 to 2020, where he completed his bachelor’s thesis on mass transfer in aerated stirred tank reactors at the Institute of Multiphase Flows (IMS). He continued his studies in the master’s programme in Process Engineering at TUHH, graduating at the end of 2023.

In 2024, Timo Merbach began working as a research assistant at the IMS, contributing to the Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) 1615 SMART Reactors and focusing on projects B04 and C01, which are dedicated to tailored transport processes in multiphase reactors and the integration of components into adaptive geometries. He is currently assigned to the working group Reactive Bubbly Flows due to the available expertise concerning transport processes in reactive systems.

Research

How are the different timescales of fluid dynamic mixing, mass transfer and reaction kinetics impacting the yield and selectivity of competitive-consecutive gas-liquid reactions?

Applying measuring techniques as Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV), Particle Tracking Velocimetry (PTV), Laser Induced Fluorescence (LIF) or imaging UV-VIS Spectroscopy to obtain information on velocity and concentration fields around reactive bubbles to understand the complex interplay of fluid dynamics, mass transfer and chemical reactions.

Education

Undergraduate courses

  • Grundlagen des Technischen Zeichnens (SoSe 2024)

  • Einführung in CAD (WiSe 2024/25)

  • Einführung in das Chemie- und Bioingenieurwesen (WiSe 2024/25)

Oral and Poster Presentations

Poster Presentations

  • Merbach,T.; Mockus, B.; Minamitani, K.; Kexel, F.; Schlüter, M.; Valluri, P.; Hayashi, K.; Tomiyama, A.:" Development of a Correlation for the Terminal Rising Velocity for 2D-Bubbles in Unconfined Domain", 11th International Conference on Multiphase Flows, Kobe, Japan, 2023, poster presentation

  • Kexel, F.; Bertram, S.; Merbach, T.; von Kameke, A.; Hoffmann, M.; Tomiyama, A.; Schlüter, M.: "Influence of Taylor Bubble Shapes on Wake Structures", 4th International Symposium on Multiscale Multiphase Process Engineering, Berlin, 2022, poster presentation

Publications

[162574]
Title: Influence of counterdiffusion effects on mass transfer coefficients in stirred tank reactors.
Written by: Matthes. S.; Merbach, T.; Fitschen, J.; Hoffmann, M.; Schlüter, M.;
in: <em>Chemical Engineering Journal Advances</em>. (2021).
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ceja.2021.100180
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Abstract: Accurate knowledge of volumetric oxygen mass transfer coefficients in multiphase systems is important for successfully designing and efficient operation of process plants. As a result, a large number of papers on the determination of volumetric mass transfer coefficients have been published in the literature. The dynamic degassing method is probably the most common method for determining the volumetric mass transfer coefficient. However, little work is known on the influence of countercurrent diffusion effects, arising from further dissolved components, on the volumetric mass transfer coefficient. For this reason, the effect of countercurrent diffusion is investigated in the present work by using different stripping gases to determine the volumetric oxygen mass transfer coefficient. Furthermore, the effect of counterdiffusion is investigated for both conventional aeration and aeration with microbubbles.The present work shows that the choice of stripping gas has a decisive influence on the determination of the volumetric oxygen mass transfer coefficient. Moreover, it can be shown that this effect is directly proportional to the solubility of the stripping gas in the aqueous phase. Simultaneous measurements of bubble size distributions allow determining mass transfer coefficients. A model is developed describing the decrease in the mass transfer coefficient as a function of the solubility of the stripping gas. Furthermore, it can be shown that for the experimental determination of volumetric oxygen mass transfer coefficients, the choice of stripping gas should be adapted to secondary gas types occurring within real processes achieving a better comparability.