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Thermal Process Engineering Lab
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A lab that uses chemical engineering to study the drying, freezing, and storage of pharmaceuticals and foods.
AboutAbout the lab
Process technologies for pharmaceuticals and foods
Building on chemical engineering, the Thermal Process Engineering Lab tackles problems related to the drying, freezing, and storage of pharmaceuticals and foods.
It aims to understand how heat and mass are transferred inside products and to control how their structure and quality change.
The lab explores the process technologies that manufacturing sites need to achieve advanced production, with the goal of contributing to the sustainability of producers and society.
On the lab's website, it is introduced under the name "Nakagawa Lab (Chemical Engineering Division, Fourth Chair)."
Key terms
- Freeze-drying
- A method of removing water by combining freezing and drying. Also called lyophilization.
- Freeze-concentrated phase
- The concentrated liquid portion that remains after part of the water has turned to ice. It solidifies when cooled further.
- Heat and mass transfer
- The conduction of heat and the movement of components such as water within a material. In drying, these two occur simultaneously.
NewsLab news
A master's student won a Poster Award at the Joint Kyushu Conference of Chemistry-Related Branches
A student won a Poster Award (Thomas Jennings Award) at ISLFD2026
A master's student won a Poster Award (Student Encouragement Award) at the 91st Annual Meeting of the Society of Chemical Engineers, Japan
Prof. Nakagawa won the Research Award of the Japan Society for Food Engineering
Prof. Nakagawa joined Kyushu University
ResearchResearch themes
This lab explores the process technologies that manufacturing sites need to achieve advanced production, aiming to create technologies especially for pharmaceuticals and foods. It addresses problems related to drying, freezing, and storage, seeking to understand how heat and mass are transferred inside products and to control how their structure and quality change.
*Illustrative imageFundamental Research on Advanced Storage of Pharmaceuticals and Foods
The lab investigates how frozen storage under temperature fluctuations affects structural relaxation, how proteins aggregate in the freeze-concentrated phase, and what chemical reactions occur when dried products absorb moisture.
*Illustrative imageFreeze-Drying Equipment and Process Development
The lab evaluates the properties of dried powders made by spray freeze-drying, and studies how to control the physical properties of foods using atmospheric-pressure freeze-drying processes.
*Illustrative imageControlling Structure and Function through Phase Separation
Research includes modifying protein digestibility through dry-heat treatment (thermal storage treatment) and controlling the microstructure of food gels using freeze concentration.
*Illustrative imageModel-Based Quality Assurance for Pharmaceuticals and Foods
The lab models radiation-heated freeze-drying processes and develops elemental technologies to stabilize the quality of biological products.
MembersFaculty
The lab's members consist of faculty, technical staff, doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students, and special research students.As of 2026
- ProfessorKyuya Nakagawa
- Associate ProfessorShusaku Asano
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Peru - Lares Trek 043 - potatoes laid out for freeze-drying ( )” McKay Savage from London, UK / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Fundamental Research on Advanced Storage of Pharmaceuticals and Foods: “Antarctica Frozen Food Warehouse” Eli Duke / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)
- Freeze-Drying Equipment and Process Development: “Lyophilizer tray type” 作者不詳 / Public domain (cropped)
- Controlling Structure and Function through Phase Separation: “Emulsion Filled Gel seen at Cryo-SEM” Bonfiglio92 / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Model-Based Quality Assurance for Pharmaceuticals and Foods: “Quality Control ( )” IAEA Imagebank / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
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