Dr Hemaka Bandulasena

BSc Eng (Hons) PhD CEng FIChemE FHEA

  • Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering

Research groups and centres

Publications
ORCiD Researcher ID Google Scholar
headshot of Hemaka

Background:

Hemaka Bandulasena holds a BSc Eng. (Hons) degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, and completed his PhD at the University of Sheffield in 2008, focusing on 'Microfluidic Inference of Rheology of Complex Fluids'. Following this, he conducted research for three years as a post-doctoral research associate in the Fluidics group at the University of Sheffield. Hemaka joined Loughborough University in February 2012 as a lecturer in Chemical Engineering, progressing to Senior Lecturer in 2016 and Reader in 2022. From 2019 to 2022, he served as Director of Doctoral Programmes in the School of Aeronautical, Automotive, Chemical and Materials Engineering, and in 2025, he was appointed Head of Department in Chemical Engineering at Loughborough University.

Qualifications:

  • PhD 2008 The University of Sheffield, UK
  • ILM Level 3 award in Coaching, Institute of Leadership and Management
  • ILM Level 5 award in Leadership and Management, Institute of Leadership and Management

Key awards:

  • Senior Moulton Medal, 2009 - for the best paper published by IChemE

Professional affiliations:

  • Charted Engineer
  • Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers
  • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, UK

Outline of main research interests:

  • Biofuels and Biochemicals – Pretreatment technologies, process intensification, novel separation strategies
  • Microfluidics - Micro/nano bubbles: generation and applications, microfluidic oscillators, microfabrication, mathematical modelling, microrheometry
  • Electrokinetic Phenomena in Foam
  • Numerical Simulations 
  • Wastewater Treatment – Microbubble-plasma reactors

 

Teaching responsibilities:

  • Transfer processes (CGC051)
  • MEng design projects
  • Numerical Simulations with Comsol Multiphysics (CGB022, CGP075, CGC051)
  • Chemical Process Control (CGC022)
  • Reaction Engineering (CGB017)

Administrative responsibilities:

  • Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering

Recent Publications:

For full list of publications, please see

https://publications.lboro.ac.uk/publications/all/collated/cghchb.html

https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=TUvfvikAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Hemaka_Bandulasena/research

 

Selected publications:

  1. Joseph Calverley, Christopher Ibenegbu, Abdulkadir Hussein-Sheik, Hemaka Bandulasena*, David Leak, 2024, Ethanologenic fermentation by Parageobacillus thermoglucosidasius with continuous hot microbubble gas-stripping, Microbial Cell Factories, 23,165.
  2. Joseph Calverley, Will Zimmerman, David Leak, Hemaka Bandulasena*, 2021, Continuous removal of ethanol from dilute ethanol-water mixtures using hot microbubbles, Chemical engineering Journal, 424, 130511
  3. Oladayo Ogunyinka, Felipe Iza, Benjamin Buckley, Hemaka Bandulasena*, 2021, Epoxidation of trans-stilbene in a microfluidic plasma reactor, Chemical Engineering science, 240, 116665 (Featured in Chemical Engineering Science front cover, volume 244, November 2021)
  4. Chinasa Ojiako, Radu Cimpeanu, Hemaka Bandulasena, Roger Smith, Dmitri Tseluiko, 2020, Deformation and dewetting of liquid films under gas jets, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 905, A18
  5. Abdulkadir Hussein Sheik, Faraz Montazersadgh, Victor Starov, Anna Trybala, Upul Wijayantha, Hemaka Bandulasena*, 2020, Electrokinetic Transport of Charged Dye in a Freely Suspended Liquid Film: Experiments and Numerical Simulations, Langmuir, 36, 1183-1191
  6. Alexander Wright, Matteo Taglioli, Faraz Montazersadgh, Alex Shaw, Felipe Iza, H C Hemaka Bandulasena*, 2019, Microbubble-Enhanced DBD Plasma Reactor: Design, Characterisation and Modelling, Chemical Engineering Research and Design, 144, 159-173
  7. Alexander Wright, Adam Marsh, Federica Ricciotti, Alex Shaw, Felipe Iza, Richard Holdich, Hemaka Bandulasena*, 2018, Microbubble-enhanced dielectric barrier discharge pretreatment of microcrystalline cellulose, Biomass and Bioenergy Journal, 118, 46-54
  8. Alexander Wright, Christopher Ibenegbu, Thomas Holmes, Alex Shaw, William Zimmerman, Felipe Iza, David Leak, Hemaka Bandulasena*, 2018, Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma Microbubble Reactor for Pretreatment of Lignocellulosic Biomass, AIChE Journal, 64(11), 3803-3816
  9. Zimmerman, W. B., Al-Mashhadani, M. K. H., Hemaka Bandulasena, H. C., 2013, Evaporation dynamics of microbubbles, Chemical Engineering Science, 101, 865-877
  10. William B. Zimmerman, Mohammad Zandi, HC Hemaka Bandulasena, Václav Tesař, James Gilmour, Kezhen Ying, 2011, Design of an airlift loop bioreactor and pilot scales studies with fluidic oscillator induced microbubbles for growth of a microalgae Dunaliella salina, Applied Energy, 88 (10), 3357-3369 
  11. Zimmerman WBJ, HewakandambyBN, TesařV, BandulasenaHCH, OmotowaOA, 2009, On the design and simulation of an airlift loop bioreactor with microbubble generation by fluidic oscillation, Food and Bioproducts Processing, 87, 215-227.

 

 

External Collaborators:

  • University of Sheffield
  • University of Bath
  • University of York
  • Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
  • The Czech Academy of Sciences
  • VTT, Finland
  • Perlemax Ltd.
  • Phase Biolabs, Nottingham