Dr. Mircea Vinatoru (Coventry University)
Dr. Mircea Vinatoru (Coventry University) has extensive experience in application of ultrasound for technological purposes. He has designed and supervised the manufacture of the first successful industrial scale ultrasonic batch reactor (1000 L volume, 4.5 kW ultrasonic power) dedicated to natural products extraction. He developed the first continuous sonochemical process for the transesterification of vegetable oil to produce biodiesel with Japanese, USA and EU patents on this technology. In 2005 was employed in Canada, Food Technology Centre, PEI, to setup a pilot facility for natural products extraction using ultrasound. In 2006, in Texas, he set up a research laboratory for a private company in order to perform research work for renewable fuels. After that he was employed at Coventry University as a senior research fellow to work for an European project – SONO – aimed at embedding metal oxides nanoparticles into fabrics to make it antimicrobial. He designed for the consortium the industrial scale ultrasonic machine capable to take full size fabric in a continuous process. He is also engaged in the MAPSYN EU project, where he focuses on experimental design at laboratory level and designing the potential combined ultrasonic – microwave continuous reactors.
Top 5 relevant publications:
- Sonoelectrocatalytic decomposition of methylene blue using Ti/Ta2O5-SnO2 electrodes Marina Shestakova Mircea Vinatoru; Timothy J. Mason; Mika Sillanpää, Ultrasonics Sonochemistry, 2015, 23, 135–141.
- The sonochemical coating of cotton withstands 65 washing cycles at hospital washing standards and retains its antibacterial properties,. Gedanken, Aharon; Perelshtein, Ilana; Ruderman, L.; Perkas, Nina; Mason, Timothy; Beddow, J.; Joyce, Eadaoin; Singh, G.; Vinatoru, M.; Blanes, M.; Molla, K., Cellulose, 2013, 20 , 1215-1221.
- The Extraction of Natural Products using Ultrasound or Microwaves T J Mason, F Chemat and M Vinatoru, Current Organic Chemistry, 2011, 15 , 237-247, 2011.
- Ultrasonically driven continuous process for vegetable oil transesterification, C. Stavarache, M. Vinatoru , Y. Maeda, H. Bandow, Ultrasonics Sonochemistry, 2007, 14, 413–417.
- Fatty acids methyl esters from vegetable oil by means of ultrasonic energy C. Stavarache, M. Vinatoru, R. Nishimura, Y. Maeda, Ultrasonics Sonochemistry, 2005, 12, 367–372.