EFCE Excellence Award for dr.ir. Marco Meeuwse

Former PhD student of the Chemical Reactor Engineering group, dr.ir. Marco Meeuwse is the winner of the Excellence Award in Chemical Reaction Engineering 2012 of the European Federation of Chemical Engineering (EFCE). This award has been instituted in 2010 to recognise an outstanding PhD thesis in the field of chemical reaction engineering. It is the second time that this Award is presented. According to the EFCE, Marco Meeuwse has an excellent PhD thesis, for which he achieved the best evaluation results in terms of breadth and depth of the study, industrial relevance, innovation, number and quality of publications, and the European dimension. He obtained his PhD degree in 2011. The title of his thesis is “Rotor-stator spinning disc reactor”. The Award consists of a cash prize of 1,500 Euros and will be presented at the 22nd International Conference on Chemical Reactor Engineering (ISCRE-22) in September 2012 in Maastricht.

 

 

 

Spinid receives first phase STW Valorisation Grant
Spinid, a spin-off company of the Lab. Chemical Reactor Engineering of Prof.dr.ir. Jaap Schouten, has been awarded the first phase STW Valorisation Grant representing a total value of € 25.000 for this year.
Spinid is a product company focussing on the commercialization of equipment based on Spinning Disc Technology, a technology developed in Prof. Schouten's lab by Dr.ir. John van der Schaaf. Spinid focuses on the deployment of this technology for production facilities in the chemical- and pharmaceutical industry, but also in the bio and food industry. The current product line includes extractors, multiphase reactors, and heat exchangers. Future equipment under development are crystallizers and distillation equipment. Furthermore complete integrated multistep processes dedicated to the specific industrial customer are developed. The Dutch Technology Foundation (STW) acknowledged the innovative character of Spinid’s business model with knowledge valorization as main driver. Spinid is able to strengthen its market position and products by means of this STW funding.

 

Cum laude graduate Sander Halin is now running Runnersworld
After his successful graduation in the SCR group on the direct epoxidation of propene, resulting in a paper and a second one in preparation, Sander could have started a PhD project in the group. Instead, he chose to pursue a career related to his other passion – running.

Tobias Illg, PhD student in the group of Prof. Dr. Volker Hessel and performing his PhD at the Institut für Mikrotechnik Mainz (IMM) in Germany, was nominated by the scientific council of the IMM for the "Best Paper Award 2010/2011.
The paper entitled "Flow chemistry using milli- and microstructured reactors – From conventional to novel process windows" was published 2010 in Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry, being invited for the special issue "Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award 2010: Professor Seeberger". It highlights how chemical reactions can benefit from the use of milli- and micro structured devices and how existing chemical protocols can be changed towards process conditions hitherto not applicable in standard laboratory equipment. It gives a broad overview on the application fields of "Novel Process Windows" and how this idea started changing the chemical world in the laboratories.

Ma’moun Al-Rawashdeh is finalist for the ‘Simon Stevin Leerling’ contest.
At the upcoming STW Annual Congress on October 6 in Nieuwegein there is a poster competition for PhD students working on a STW funded project. Ma’moun has submitted a poster entitled “A multifunctional device to speed-up fine chemical industry” in which he is describing his work to scale up microreactors to an industrial scale for multi-phase applications.
In this project he recently celebrated the commissioning of his intermediate scale set-up in which he will demonstrate the scaling concepts he developed for an industrially relevant hydrogenation reaction. A jury evaluated the ‘Simon Stevin Leerling’ posters and selected Ma’mouns poster as one of the six finalists to be presented in a plenary session at the STW conference. The winner will be chosen immediately afterwards by the public via an electronic voting system.

Former PhD student of the Chemical Reactor Engineering group, dr.ir. Patrick Wenmakers is the winner of the Excellence Award in Process Intensification 2011 of the European Federation of Chemical Engineering (EFCE). This biennial award has been instituted in 2008 to recognise an outstanding PhD thesis in the field of process intensification (PI). It is for the second time that this Award will be presented. According to the EFCE, Patrick Wenmakers has an excellent PhD thesis, for which he achieved the best evaluation results in terms of relevance to process intensification, breadth and depth of the study, scientific impact and industrial relevance, innovation, and dissemination of the results. He obtained his PhD degree in 2010. The title of his thesis is “Hairy Foam: carbon nanofibers on solid foam as catalyst support”. The Award consists of a cash prize of 1,500 Euros and will be presented at the third European Process Intensification Conference (EPIC-3) in June 2011 in Manchester.

Process technology in Eindhoven aims to be among the European leaders
Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) has today, 10 February 2011, appointed prof.dr. Volker Hessel as professor of Micro Flow Chemistry and Process Technology in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry. The appointment of Hessel means the department’s Process Technology cluster now has four researchers to whom prestigious European subsidies worth millions of euro have been granted.Professor Hessel has since July 2005 been part-time professor of Micro Process Engineering in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, within the Chemical Reactor Engineering subdepartment led by prof.dr.ir. Jaap Schouten. The German researcher is currently R&D director for Chemical Milli and Micro Process Technologies at the Institut für Mikrotechnik Mainz (IMM) in Germany. He will start work in his new chair on 1 April as full-time professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry.European topHessel’s research into intensifying chemical processes in microreactors will make a flying start through the awarding of an Advanced Grant worth 2.5 million euro by the European Research Council (ERC) in October 2010 for his research proposal entitled Novel Process Windows. With the appointment of Hessel, as well as of four other professors in the Process Technology cluster during the past year (Hans Kuipers, Martin van Sint Annaland, Jan Meuldijk, Maaike Kroon), the Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry is underlining its ambition to be among the top European players in research and teaching in the field of process technology. Three of the six professors in the Process Technology cluster have recently been awarded ERC Advanced Grants: Hessel (2010), Kuipers (2009) and Schouten (2008). One of the department’s associate professors (Niels Deen) received an ERC Starting Grant in 2010. "With this group we truly have become a European powerhouse in process technology", says Jaap Schouten.The establishment of the Process Technology cluster was funded partly by financial support from the ‘Sectorplan Natuur- en Scheikunde’ (Sector Plan Physics and Chemistry). This funding was made available by the Minister for Education to structurally strengthen the scientific research and teaching in physics and chemistry at the general universities and the universities of technology.
Tabletop microreactors
Professor Hessel specializes in intensifying organic reactions with flow chemistry and in microreactors beyond the possibilities of current micro process technology. His new processing paths typically rely on harsh, unusual and unexplored process conditions, which enable new chemical transformations, increase the speed of reactions significantly increased and higher process integration relative to today’s chemical production processes. These reactors can therefore be built on a much smaller scale than the classical, large-scale process plants. This results in multifunctional, modular tabletop plants that can be used quickly and flexibly in the chemical laboratory, and that as container-like production plants can easily be transported to the locations at which the end-products are needed, or where the raw materials are available.Important benefits are reductions in energy and raw material requirements, safer production processes, better and new product quality and shorter time-to-market. In addition, such new processing in microreactors offer extensive opportunities for the development of new reaction routes and new chemicals. The development of new chemical synthesis methods in laboratory microreactors is already in full swing. The same reactor can subsequently serve both laboratory and production purposes, which will allow much faster time-to-market and lower-cost production ramp-up.

 

2010

Prestigious ERC Advanced Grant voor Volker Hessel
The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded prof.dr. Volker Hessel an ERC Advanced Grant of 2.5 million euros. These Advanced Grants allow exceptional established research leaders in any field of science, engineering and scholarship to pursue frontier research of their choice.
The topic of Volker Hessel’s Advanced Grant addresses the development of new chemical pathways and processes carried out at extreme conditions, defined as “Novel Process Windows”, that can only be applied when using new microreactor and microprocessing technologies.
While microstructured reactors typically intensify mass and heat transfer, Volker Hessel’s ERC proposal goes beyond and presents for the first time a methodology to additionally speeding up the reaction kinetics to a level which is needed to fully exploit the whole microprocessing potential – thus it combines chemical engineering with chemistry in a kind of endeavour not undergone so far and far off the beaten track, leading to new chemical pathways. The research aims at new and exciting fundamental knowledge about organic chemistry under conditions far from conventional practice with huge potential for process intensification and for changing the entire way of doing chemistry – starting from the reaction protocol up to the overall process design.
Volker Hessel is part-time professor ‘Micro Process Engineering’ in the Chemical Reactor Engineering group at TU/e since 2005. He is also Director R&D Chemical Process Technology at the Institut fuer Mikrotechnik in Mainz and Honorary Professor of Technical Chemistry at the Technical University of Darmstadt.

First prize poster presentation at NPS-10 for PhD student Marco Meeuwse
PhD student Marco Meeuwse of the Chemical Reactor Engineering Group (SCR) has been awarded the first prize for the best poster presentation at the 10th Netherlands' Process Technology Symposium (NPS-10) on 25-27 October 2010 in Veldhoven. Marco's poster presented his work on the “Rotor-Stator Spinning Disc Reactor for Intense Gas-Liquid Mass Transfer”. The award, sponsored by the Industrial Board (IROP) of the Dutch Research School on Process Technology  (OSPT), consists of a certificate and an amount of € 2500 to attend an international conference. Colleague PhD Narendra Patil was also one of the three nominees for this prize with his poster “Optimization Of Heating Efficiency Under Monomode Microwave Heating For Organic Synthesis In Microchannel Reactors”. PhD Ma’moun Al-Rawashdeh (also member of the SCR group) was one of the three nominees for best oral presentation with his lecture on “Uniform Gas-Liquid Flow Distribution in Parallel Micro and Milli Channels in the Taylor Flow Regime“.

Prof-wielrenner Job Vissers Cum Laude afgestudeerd
Job Vissers, sinds vorig jaar prof wielrenner bij de Skil-Shimano formatie, heeft op 8 september jl. zijn ingenieursdiploma Scheikundige Technologie uit handen van Prof.dr.ir. Jaap Schouten gekregen. Zijn afstudeerwerk bij de capaciteitsgroep Chemische Reactortechnologie heeft hij uitstekend weten te combineren met het beoefenen van topsport, want de 25-jarige coureur studeerde cum laude af op een onderzoek naar chemische reactoren met ‘hairy foam’ als dragermateriaal voor katalysatoren. De komende jaren zal Job nu zijn onverdeelde energie kunnen gaan geven aan zijn wielercarrière.

Hoogewerff Stimuleringsprijs 2010 toegekend aan Flowid B.V.
De Hoogewerff Stimuleringsprijs 2010 is toegekend aan het management team van Flowid B.V., bestaande uit ir. Jeoffrey van den Berg, ir. Wouter Stam en ir. Wessel Hengeveld voor hun innovatieve aanpak van de toepassing van de microreactortechnologie op productieschaal in de chemische industrie.
De Hoogewerff Stimuleringsprijs is een nieuw ingestelde 3-jaarlijkse prijs van de Stichting Hoogewerff-Fonds (www.hoogewerff-fonds.nl) ter stimulering van innovatief en baanbrekend werk op het gebied van de chemische technologie in Nederland. Flowid B.V. (www.flowid.nl) is door de prijswinnaars opgericht in 2008. Het is een spin-off van de Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (TU/e). Flowid stelt zich tot doel om praktische toepassingen te commercialiseren op basis van de microreactortechnologie die onder andere in de TU/e-onderzoeksgroep Chemische Reactortechnologie wordt ontwikkeld. De fijnchemie en de pharma zijn de belangrijkste markten waarin Flowid opereert. De innovatieve wijze waarop Flowid de kennis van microtechnologie verbindt met algemene procestechnologische principes en met kennis en kunde van derden om tot commerciële proposities te komen heeft de Stichting Hoogewerff-Fonds in het bijzonder aangesproken. Flowid is daarmee een goed voorbeeld van een ondernemingsinitiatief om de kloof tussen wetenschappelijke ontwikkelingen en commerciële implementatie te overbruggen.
De prijsuitreiking vindt plaats tijdens het tiende Nederlands Procestechnologie Symposium (NPS10) op dinsdag 26 oktober 2010 in het Congrescentrum Koningshof in Veldhoven.

 

 

Emultech receives second phase STW Valorisation Grant
Emultech B.V., a spin-off company of the Lab. Chemical Reactor Engineering of Prof.dr.ir. Jaap Schouten, has been awarded the second phase STW Valorisation Grant representing a total value of euro 200.000 for the next two years. EmulTech B.V is a contract development organization focusing on Advanced Drug Delivery Systems, which provides solutions to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries through its proprietary Emulsion Technology for Micro Encapsulates (ET4ME). EmulTech currently offers clients enabling technology tailor made for the development and production of Advanced Drug Delivery Systems. The superior microfluidic technology answers to today's market demands, like uniformity, solubility, tailored release, benign processes and reproducibility. Through close collaboration with the customers and with EmulTech partners, ET4ME has already enabled several new development programs. ET4ME is a highly versatile technology, which also allows EmulTech to reformulate existing products in order for the customer to extend its patent on branded medicine. The Dutch Technology Foundation (STW) acknowledged the innovative character of Emultech's business model with knowledge valorization as main driver. Emultech is able to strengthen its market position and product portfolio by means of this STW funding.

Afstudeerder Thijs Moonen vertelt in Cursor over de 'rotating foam reactor'
In de rubriek Sluitstuk in het TU/e-blad de Cursor (25 maart 2010) vertelt Thijs Moonen over zijn afstudeerwerk in de capaciteitsgroep Chemische Reactortechnologie. Thijs werkt aan het ontwerp van de 'rotating foam reactor', een nieuw type meerfasenreactor waarbij de katalysator is aangebracht op een "sponsachtig" hard schuimmateriaal. Dit harde schuim dient tevens als roerder in de reactor. Chemische reacties kunnen in deze reactor efficiënter worden uitgevoerd. In Sluitstuk vertelt hij over de achtergronden. Lees verder ....

Stefanie Kriescher vertelt over haar afstudeerwerk in de Cursor
In de rubriek Sluitstuk in het TU/e-blad de Cursor (18 maart 2010) vertelt Stefanie Kriescher over de resultaten van haar afstudeerwerk in de capaciteitsgroep Chemische Reactortechnologie. Microreactoren zouden een aantrekkelijk alternatief kunnen zijn voor de productie van propeenoxide. Stefanie Kriescher werkt aan de optimalisatie van het reactieproces, onder andere door het reactiemechanisme te ontrafelen. In Sluitstuk vertelt ze over de achtergronden. Lees verder ..

 

Two-year microreactor project granted

TU/e has recently been granted a two-year project ‘Modular microreactor platform for the manufacture of high-tech chemical products’ within the framework of the Pieken in de Delta program. The project is supported by SenterNovem, the Provinces of Limburg and North Brabant, Chemtrix, DSM, and TU/e.
A post-doc appointed in the Chemical Reactor Engineering group of Prof. Jaap Schouten at TU/e’s Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry will carry out the project in close cooperation with Chemtrix. Innovative production microsystems for continuous synthesis, both on pilot and commercial scale, will be integrated in a compact, modular assembly comprised of all relevant (chemical and physical) unit operations (e.g. mixing, flow transport, reaction, heat exchange, separation). This modular assembly will be tested on-site in a later stage of the project.

 

 

Flowid receives second phase STW Valorisation Grant
Flowid B.V., a spin-off company of the Lab. Chemical Reactor Engineering of Prof.dr.ir Jaap Schouten, has been awarded the second phase STW Valorisation Grant representing a total value of € 200.000 for the next two years.
Flowid B.V. is an engineering company for process optimization, with a focus on microreactor technology. Flowid’s services are focused on the breakthrough of this technology for production facilities in the chemical- and pharmaceutical industry. Therefore, Flowid has an extensive network of industrial (potential) technology users and partnerships with several of the main equipment suppliers in the world wide market of microreactor technology. The Dutch Technology Foundation (STW) acknowledged the innovative character of Flowid’s business model with knowledge valorization as main driver. Flowid is able to strengthen its market position and products by means of this STW funding.

 

 

 

2009

 

STW Perspectief Project granted
The Dutch Technology Foundation (STW) has approved of a joint project proposal by dr.ir. Xander Nijhuis, dr. Mart de Croon, prof.dr.ir. Jaap Schouten of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry and prof.dr.ir. Gerrit Kroesen of the Department of Applied Physics within the 'Building on Transient Plasmas (BTP) program'. The project ‘An integrated micro reactor for the epoxidation of propene using a micro plasma’ will be carried out by 2 PhD students. At the Department of Applied Physics, a PhD student will develop a microplasma reactor for the production of hydrogen peroxide. In the Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, a PhD student will be developing a microdevice to capture the gas-phase hydrogen peroxide from the unreacted hydrogen and oxygen and use it to produce propene oxide. The overall aim is to develop an integrated microdevice for the propene oxide production.

Prof. Volker Hessel appointed as Honorary Professor at TU Darmstadt

Prof.dr. Volker Hessel has been appointed as honorary professor in the area of Technical Chemistry at the Technical University of Darmstadt. Prof. Hessel is Scientific Director of the Institut für Mikrotechnik Mainz (IMM) and part-time professor Micro Process Engineering at TU/e. The chair in Darmstadt is part of the Excellence Cluster "Smart Interfaces - Understanding and Designing Fluid Boundaries" that was founded in 2007. Prof. Hessel will be heading one of the five themes of this Cluster, Near-Wall Reactive Flows. More information can be found in the IMM press release.

 

Fiftieth Graduation!
On Thursday October 29, 2009, the fiftieth Doctor's degree at the Laboratory of Chemical Reactor Engineering since the establishment of the Laboratory in 1957 was granted to Dr.ir. Oki Muraza for his PhD thesis titled "Nanostructured Catalytic Films for Multiphase Microstructured Reactors". The thesis describes the synthesis and characterization of ordered mesoporous silica and titania films with a thickness of 100 to 400 nm via evaporation induced self assembly methods on different substrates. The obtained films can be loaded with polymetallic nanoparticles with a size of 1 to 3 nm to specifically activate a selected functionality of complex organic molecules. Their activity and selectivity were investigated in two continuous flow hydrogenation reactions. The high stability of these catalytic thin films allows for further implementation in fine chemicals synthesis using microstructured reactors. The PhD project was financed by the Dutch Technology Foundation STW.

 

New spin-off EmulTech adds control to emulsion production

EmulTech B.V. is a recently founded spin-off company from the Chemical Reactor Engineering group of the Eindhoven University of Technology. Currently, EmulTech B.V. is upscaling their micro fluidic channel devices. The superior quality of micro channel devices is widely recognized in the pharmaceutical field of controlled drug delivery systems. By truly understanding the workings inside the micro fluidic channel devices, EmulTech is one of the few that can overcome the hurdles in developing reliable upscaled equipment for the production of high quality lipid and particulate dispersions, like microspheres and liposomes. This patent pending knowledge allows EmulTech to be the link between component suppliers and the pharmaceutical industry. More information can be found on EmulTech's website: www.emultech.nl

 

 

"Microreactoren beloven revolutie in de chemie", MicroMegazine, no. 2, 2009. Interview met Prof.dr.ir. J.C. Schouten.

Flowid B.V. opens Application Laboratory at TU Eindhoven
Flowid B.V., a spin-off company of the Chemical Reactor Engineering group at Eindhoven University of Technology, has officially opened its Application Laboratory on Friday June 19, 2009. With this Application Laboratory, Flowid wants to stimulate the utilization of microreaction technology in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. In the 'AppLab' so called micro flow reactors of several suppliers are present. The laboratory is fully functional so that the equipment is not only available for demonstration purposes but also for real operation by industry. Read more .... See also the news item on the website of Chemisch2Weekblad ...

Portret Job Vissers in Explorer
In de uitgave van Mei 2009 wordt afstudeerder Job Vissers geportretteerd. Lees het interview .......

 

New Handbook on Micro Reactors edited by Volker Hessel and Jaap Schouten et al.
In February 2009 Wiley published a 3-volume Handbook on Micro Process Engineering and Micro Reactors. The handbook has been edited by profs Volker Hessel and Jaap Schouten, both in the Chemical Reactor Engineering group at TU/e, and two colleagues, profs Albert Renken and Jun-ichi Yoshida. This three-volume handbook provides an overview of the key aspects of micro process engineering. Volume 1 covers the fundamentals, operations and catalyst systems, Volume 2 examines devices, reactions and applications, with Volume 3 rounding off the trilogy with system, process and plant engineering.
Fluid dynamics, mixing, heat/mass transfer, purification and separation in microstructured devices and microstructured reactors are explained in the first volume. Volume 2 segments microreactor design, fabrication and assembly, bulk and fine chemistry, polymerisation, fuel processing and functional materials into understandable parts. The final volume of the handbook addresses microreactor systems design and scale-up, sensing, analysis and control, chemical process engineering, economic and eco-efficiency analyses as well as microreactor plant case studies in one book. Together, this 3-volume handbook explains the science behind micro process engineering to the scale-up and their real life industrial applications. Read more ..

 

Chemical Technology reports about recent work of the Chemical Reactor Engineering group on development of thin catalytic coatings in capillary microreactors
In its February 2009 issue, the journal Chemical Technology writes about recent work of the Chemical Reactor Engineering group that has recently been published in Lab on a Chip. The article describes a new method for catalyst deposition on the inner walls of capillary microreactors. These novel capillary reactor systems have large potential for continuous production of fine-chemicals and other high-added value chemical products. Read more ...
Chemical Technology provides succinct accounts of the latest industrial applications and technological aspects of research across the broad range of the chemical sciences. RSC Publishing is a not-for-profit publisher owned by the Royal Society of Chemistry in the UK.

 

2008

 

FLOWID BV and ET4ME, two spin-offs of the Chemical Reactor Engineering group at TU/e's Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, have each been awarded a Valorisation Grant (first phase) by the Dutch Technology Foundation STW.
The grants are 25,000 euro each to carry out a study into the technical and economical feasibility of the spin-offs' business plans. FLOWID B.V. (www.flowid.nl) was founded by ir. Jeoffrey van den Berg, ir. Wessel Hengeveld and ing. Wouter Stam. FLOWID helps the chemical and process industry implementing microreactor technology, acting as a specialized intermediate between the industry, equipment suppliers and knowledge centres. ET4ME stands for Emulsion Technology for Micro Encapsulates and is developing new technology for producing functional ingredients and drug-delivery systems for a range of applications in the pharmaceutical, cosmetics, and food industry. ET4ME was founded by undergraduate students Robin de Bruijn and Fränk de Jong. Read more (in Dutch): http://www.tue.nl/cursor/internet/jaargang51/cursor14/nieuws/index.php?page=x6

 

Advance Article on the Lab on a Chip web site
Lab on a Chip has published this week a paper by Dr. Evgeny Rebrov as first author as an Advance Article on the journal's web site. The article will appear early next year in the printed journal. The work was done in close collaboration with Dr. Angel Berenguer-Murcia and colleagues from Cambridge University in the UK. The article describes a new method for catalyst deposition on the inner walls of capillary microreactors. These novel capillary reactor systems have large potential for continuous production of fine-chemicals and other high-added value chemical products. Read the Advance Article: http://www.rsc.org/publishing/journals/LC/article.asp?doi=B815716B

 

Interview met Jaap Schouten in C2W
In het Chemisch2Weekblad van 15 november 2008 staat een interview met Jaap Schouten. C2W-redacteur Arjen Dijkgraaf spreekt met hem over zijn onderzoek aan nieuwe reactorconcepten, zoals microreactoren, schuimgestructureerde meerfasenreactoren en de spinning disk reactor. Lees verder ......

 

First Prize Oral Presentation at NPS-8 for PhD student Patrick Wenmakers
PhD student Patrick Wenmakers has been awarded the first prize for the best oral presentation at the 8th Netherlands' Process Technology Symposium (NPS-8) on 28-29 October 2008 in Veldhoven. Patrick's presentation discussed the modeling of transient gas-liquid mass transfer for thin liquid films on solid foam packings. These packings are used in multiphase reactors to increase the gas-liquid contact area and hence also the gas-to-liquid mass transfer rate. The award, sponsored by the Dutch Research School on Process Technology (OSPT), consists of a certificate and an amount of € 2250 to attend an international conference.

 

Unilever Research Prijs 2008 voor Ir. Floris Helmich
TU/e’er ir. Floris Helmich heeft de Unilever Research Prijs 2008 gewonnen. Hij krijgt de prijs, 2.500 euro en een beeldje, op donderdag 30 oktober overhandigd door minister Ronald Plasterk. Helmich, die vorig jaar afstudeerde in de groep Chemical Reaction Engineering van prof.dr.ir. Jaap Schouten, krijgt de prijs voor zijn afstudeeronderzoek aan nieuwe katalytische coatings die kunnen worden toegepast in microreactoren. “Deze coatings kunnen in de toekomst hopelijk worden gebruikt om medicijnen te produceren”, licht de gelukkige winnaar toe. Sinds zijn afstuderen is Helmich bezig met een promotieonderzoek in de groep van prof.dr. Bert Meijer. Unilever R&D Vlaardingen selecteert elk jaar één masterstudent van elke universiteit in Nederland voor de prijs, die wordt toegekend voor belangrijk onderzoek in de categorieën scheikunde, biotechnologie, werktuigbouwkunde en sociale wetenschappen.

 

Group members in the Eindhoven Marathon

On Sunday October 12 the 25th annual Eindhoven Marathon, crossing the entire city of Eindhoven, had several SCR members participating in both the “full-Marathon” and the “semi-Marathon” over respectively 40+ and 20 kilometers. Marco Meeuwse, the only SCR-member that joined the full-Marathon, finished in an excellent personal record. Carlo Buijs, Evgeny Rebrov, Frank Peters, Stijn de Loos and Faysal Benaskar participated in the half-marathon. All of them reached the finish line in around 1hr:40min, resulting in the best ten percent rank, i.e. the best 400 in a field of 6000 participants. The 12th of October was an excellent marathon day, in view of temperature, wind and also audience. The temperature of about 18°C made an extra enjoyment for the audience and participants with also lots of (sometimes too) loud music bands and a very nice atmosphere.

Some promises have already been made by the SCR-group participants to improve their time in next year's Eindhoven Marathon. Let us see, hopefully next year!!!

 

Prof. Volker Hessel's paper on cover of 'Energy & Environmental Science'
The recent paper of prof. Volker Hessel, Dr. Dana Kralisch and Dr. Ulrich Krtschil in the new journal 'Energy & Environmental Science' is featuring the journal's October cover (Volume 1, Number 4, October 2008). This new journal is linking all aspects of the chemical sciences relating to energy conversion and storage, alternative fuel technologies, and environmental science. Hessel's paper is titled "Sustainability through green processing - novel process windows intensify micro and milli process technologies". The paper stresses the importance of integration of sustainability aspects during process development. Micro and milli process technologies provide novel ways for process improvement combined with ecological and economic advantages. This is demonstrated in the paper by current developments in this area. The idea of Novel Process Windows is discussed referring to examples of actual research. A short overview on how to assess sustainability using established tools of evaluation is given as well. This is rounded up with a recent case study of the Kolbe–Schmitt synthesis, performed to disclose the key drivers of green process development.

 

Jaap Schouten elected chairman of EFCE Working Party Chemical Reaction Engineering
Prof. Jaap Schouten has been elected as the new chairman of the Working Party Chemical Reaction Engineering (WP CRE) of the European Federation of Chemical Engineering (EFCE) during the recent WP's business meeting on 7 September 2008 in Kyoto along with the 20th International Symposium on Chemical Reaction Engineering (ISCRE 20). The 2-year term starts on January 1, 2009. Prof. Guy Marin of Ghent University in Belgium has been elected as secretary.
The EFCE promotes scientific collaboration and supports the work of chemical engineers and scientists in 28 European countries. The EFCE represents more than 100,000 chemical engineers in Europe and covers all areas of chemical engineering. The EFCE's member societies in the Netherlands are KIVI NIRIA and KNCV that together constitute - and cooperate as - the "Nederlandse ProcesTechnologen (NPT)". One of the goals of the WP CRE is to advance science and technology in the field of chemical reaction engineering in Europe.

 

Charl Stemmet promoveert op poreus-schuimreactor
Promovendus Charl Stemmet van het Laboratorium voor Chemische Reactortechnologie aan de TU Eindhoven promoveert op 4 september 2008 op zijn proefschrift 'Gas-Liquid Solid Foam Reactors: Hydrodynamics and Mass Transfer'. In dit door de Technologiestichting STW gefinancierde promotieproject ontwikkelde hij de poreus-schuimreactor. Deze nieuwe reactor is vele malen energie-efficiënter dan traditionele meerfasenreactoren bij gelijke productiesnelheid. Lees verder: Persberichten STW en NWO.

 

Roterende reactor als tafelmodel
Katalysatoren en slimme geometrische structuren op roterende schijven zorgen ervoor, dat gassen en vloeistoffen met een hoger rendement met elkaar reageren. De TU/e ontving twee miljoen euro subsidie voor verder onderzoek naar deze technologie. Lees verder in Technisch Weekblad.

 

Two million Euro European funding awarded to Jaap Schouten
Professor Jaap Schouten has been awarded an Advanced Grant by the European Research Council (ERC), in the area of 'Physical Sciences and Engineering'. The amount of money granted amounts to two million Euros for a five year period. About thousand proposals were submitted in this domain, of which 105 have been awarded. This grant is the third major personal grant to stimulate the research of Jaap Schouten, after having received a Simon Stevin Meesterschap from Technology Foundation STW and a NWO TOP subsidy, both in 2006. Read more:

 

Flowid
The first spin-off company of the Laboratory of Chemical Reactor Engineering has been officially launched on 1 July 2008. The company is called Flowid B.V. (www.flowid.nl). This spin-off has been founded by ir. Wessel Hengeveld, ing. Wouter Stam, and ir. Jeoffrey van den Berg. Flowid helps the industry with the implementation of microreactor technology. Flowid wants to achieve this by becoming an intermediary between the end-user, knowledge institutes, and hardware suppliers. Flowid's activities will comprise proof-of-principle studies on various hardware platforms, projects concerning technology implementation, and advise & trouble shooting.

 

In Shell Venster, Uitgave van Shell Nederland B.V. (Juli/Augustus 2008), geeft Prof.dr. Gert Jan Kramer, deeltijdhoogleraar in de capaciteitsgroep Chemische Reactortechnologie en Principal Scientist bij Shell Global Solutions, antwoord op de vraag: "Wat beweegt de auto van de toekomst?". Prof. Kramer vertelt dat Shell zo snel als mogelijk 'duurzame waterstof' wil produceren en wil helpen om de massaproductie van brandstofcelauto's te versnellen. Lees het interview in Shell Venster.

 

Graduate student Floris Helmich nominated for TU/e Afstudeerprijs 2008
Floris Helmich who graduated with the Chemical Reactor Engineering group in 2007 was one of the nominees for the TU/e Afstudeerprijs 2008. Helmich worked on the project “Development of Ruthenium and Tin promoted Platinum Catalysts supported on Mesoporous Silica Films”, a project that was carried out in cooperation with the University of Cambridge. Floris Helmich presented a poster on his work during the TU/e Academic Awards Ceremony on July 2, 2008.

 

ECHO grant for Chemical Reactor Engineering group. The Division of Chemicals Sciences of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) has granted an ECHO ('Excellent Chemisch Onderzoek') project to Xander Nijhuis, Evgeny Rebrov, and Jaap Schouten of the Chemical Reactor Engineering group. The project is titled 'Direct epoxidation of propene in a microreactor'. In this PhD project a clean and energy efficient process will be developed for the safe production of propene oxide in a microreactor system containing a gold-titania based catalyst. Microreactors have an excellent potential for carrying out this reaction safely using a gas mixture within the explosive region. A small scale microplant will be designed with the catalyst integrated into a microreactor with approximately 1000 microchannels. The microreactor will be combined with a microseparator system to separate the propene oxide and water produced.

 

PhD student Patrick Wenmakers' paper in the Journal of Materials Chemistry (J. Mater. Chem., 2008, 18, 2426) is featuring the cover of the Journal's volume 18, issue 21. The paper is titled "Hairy Foam": carbon nanofibers grown on solid carbon foam. A fully accessible, high surface area, graphitic catalyst support. Co-authors are John van der Schaaf, Ben Kuster, and Jaap Schouten. The paper describes the synthesis of carbon nanofibers on reticulated vitreous carbon foam (Hairy Foam) by catalytic decomposition of ethylene. Carbon nanofibers significantly increase the surface area without producing micropores, thus allowing full control at the catalytic site by eliminating diffusion resistance. This new material shows large promise as catalyst support for multiphase catalytic reactions. The cover gives an artistic impression of carbon nanofibers attached to a solid foam. See also ........ and Kennislink.

 

"Schoner produceren met de chemische fabriek in een schoenendoos?" - Op 20 mei 2008 spreekt Jaap Schouten tijdens het mini-symposium over Duurzame Chemie aan de Fontys Hogeschool Toegepaste Natuurwetenschappen in Eindhoven.

 

"Millisecond Mixing and Reactions in Multiphase Reactors", Lecture Prof.dr. Yi Cheng, Tsinghua University Beijing, TU/e, May 16, 2008

 

"Van grootschalig naar kleinschalig" - Jaap Schouten was op 22 april 2008 een van de sprekers op het symposium Cradle to Cradle dat gehouden werd aan de TU Eindhoven. Hij sprak ondermeer over de rol van microreactortechnologie en schaalverkleining als een van de mogelijkheden om de milieubelasting van de chemische industrie omlaag te brengen. Verdere informatie: Technisch Weekblad, 26 april 2008, pagina 3. Lees meer .......

 

Group members on the Run, Rhein-Energie-Marathon, Bonn, April 20, 2008

 

Jaap Schouten's Chemical Reactor Engineering group is one of the four research groups that is participating in the recently founded Institute for Complex Molecular Systems (ICMS) at Eindhoven University of Technology. The groups will be investigating the exact mechanism behind self-organization, the principle behind all life on earth. The groups plan to use this knowledge to build molecular mini-factories that could produce the next generation of catalysts, photosynthetic systems, nanocontainers, and functional materials. Read more ......

 

2007

 

"Fabriek in Schoenendoos", NWO Publieksboek 2006 "Op onderzoek, wetenschap in Nederland", December 2007

 

"Jaap Schouten benoemd in NWO Gebiedsbestuur Chemische Wetenschappen" NWO November 2007

 

"Russen versterken Nederlandse economie", Interview Dr. Evgeny Rebrov, Transfer, Oktober 2007

 

"Martijn Mies nominated for STW's Simon Stevin Gezel Award 2007", August 2007

 

"AIChE Excellence in Process Development Research Award 2007" for Prof.dr. Volker Hessel, August 2007

 

"Zuinige en schonere auto's met 'lean-burn'-katalysator", NWO announcement Ph.D. research C.M.L. Scholz, June 2007

 

"Chemie op een snelle CD", NWO Jaaroverzicht 2006, June 2007

 

Niok Exam Award for Marco Meeuwse, NIOK Catalysis Newsletter, June 2007

 

TU/e Uitreiking Mignot prijzen 2007, Marco Meeuwse genomineerd, june 2007

 

"Wiskundig model verbetert efficiëntie reactor", Ph.D. research V.P. Chilekar, STW News; NWO News; Chempress; Fluids Processing and Cursor, May/June 2007.

 

"Voorspelbare slurriebellenkolommen", announcement Chemisch 2-Weekblad and Blik op Nieuws Wetenschap, May 2007

 

"Procesintensificatie raakt de hele procesindustrie", interview/article Fluids, April 2007

 

2006

 

Simon Stevin Meester 2006, TU/e Jaarbeeld 2006

 

"Bedrijven komen nu naar ons toe", Simon Stevin Meester 2006, STW Jaarverslag 2006

 

"Research and Universities", interview/article NPT Procestechnologie, April 2007

 

"Zelfdenkende pillen", Kennislink, March 2007

 

"Een chemische fabriek voor op tafel", interview/article NPT Procestechnologie, February 2007

 

"Samen werken aan het Madurodam van de chemische industrie", article Cursor TU/e, February 2007

 

"Microreactoren breken door", Article C2W, January 2007

 

"Chemische fabriek in een schoenendoos: utopie of de weg naar duurzaamheid?", Vierde lezingen/debatavond STW en KIVI NIRIA, announcement STW November 2006

 

"Uitreiking Simon Stevin Meesterschap 2006; Half miljoen voor slimme procestechnologie", announcement STW October 2006

 

"Engelse prijs voor Eindhovense microreactor", artikel Kennislink.nl, October 2006

 

"Eindhoven University of Technology Winner of the IChemE Chemistry Innovation KTN Award on Innovation in Applied Catalysis & Colloid Science", Picture of the award presentation; the IChemE Awards programme;

Report on the 2006 IChemE Awards Gala (see page 4), October 2006

 

"Eindhoven reactor expert appointed as Simon Stevin Meester", announcement NWO March 2006