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TU Delft Process Technology InstituteNewsletter Volume 4 – Issue I - June 2015
Dear reader,
Here is the second DPTI Newsletter of this academic year. We are looking
forward to the Jacobus van ‘t Hoff Lecture by Avelino Corma and the
DPTI annual event. We are glad to inform you that three new members
have joined our communication team: Weiwei Li, Walter van Gulik, and
Roy Meijer. Hints for items we should include on the website or in the
next newsletter (to appear at the end of this year) are also welcome at
The communication team
Rene Pecnik, Niels Looije, Weiwei Li, Walter van Gulik, Roy Meijer, Ruud
van Ommen
TU Delft Process Technology Institute
The TU Delft Process Technology Institute (DPTI) focuses its educational and research efforts on realizing significant scientific impact that assists in enabling (bio)chemical, energy and materials industries to meet sustainability challenges of the future. Research is centered around three major scientific areas: Biochemical Process Engineering, Process Intensification and Process Technology for Advanced Materials.
Editorial
News
The Delft Plan
What will Europe look like
in the year 2050? And most
importantly, how can we
start preparing now for major
and complex changes in our
energy infrastructure, while
also ensuring that the Dutch
economy continues to prosper?
That is central question of The
Delft Plan: the Netherlands as
Europe’s Energy Gateway. The
plan is TU Delft’s proposal to
initiate a movement to harness
the power of the Netherlands for
the European energy sector. See
www.energy.tudelft.nl for more
info.
Delft IMP
In December 2014, Delft IMP
(Intensified Materials Production)
was initiated as a spin-out
company of the Product & Process
Engineering (PPE) group. Delft IMP commercializes nanostructuring of
particles using atomic and molecular layer deposition (ALD and MLD), based
on the patented and publicized IP and know-how developed within PPE. It
aims at markets such as catalysis, energy storage and encapsulation.
See www.delft-imp.nl for more info.
2nd DPTI summer schoolAfter a very successful 1st summer school, this year the event will take place
on Ameland Island. You will have the nice opportunity to meet or reunite
with fellow-students around DPTI, share your knowledge, your experience
and, most important, have fun. The invitation is for all PhD, PDEng and
MSc’s. There are no costs involved.
You can register at [email protected]. Do this is asap, as the
registration will close soon!
The Green Village is a sustainable, lively and entrepreneurial community where we discover, learn and show how to solve society's urgent challenges, by uniting the strengths of scientists and entrepreneurs.
Test parkThe Green Village (TGV) showcases
amazing possibilities on the campus of
Delft University of Technology: working
examples of technologies, products
and systems that will contribute to a
green environment. The first building,
the Prêt-à-Loger concept house has
already been installed in The Green
Village.
Prêt-à-logerThe Prêt-à-Loger house was developed
by a group of TU Delft students and
it sets an example for improving the
sustainability of existing buildings
in Europe. The team achieved this by
applying a “second skin,” including a
glass structure on the side facing the
sun, on a townhome dating from the
1960s. This new skin enables the house
to run completely on solar energy. In
the Netherlands alone, there are 1.4
million terraced houses that could be
made sustainable this way.
The team is now working with partners
to apply the concept on a large scale.
In addition, TU Delft researchers will
use it as a test site for improving the
indoor environment in homes and for
the further development of sustainable
products, systems and services within
buildings.
The Car as Power Plant (CaPP)TGV stimulates visionary research
projects within its Future Labs. For
example, the car-as-power-plant
concept explores novel methods for
producing electricity and heat using
parked fuel-cell electric vehicles.
“The CaPP program ranges from
science to market, from technology to
economics, from papers to products,”
says Leendert Verhoef, science &
innovation manager at The Green
Village. “That rich mix has attracted
PhD students from totally different
disciplines, who are able and eager to
look beyond disciplinary boundaries.
Their collaboration is necessary to
create integral and deeply understood
system descriptions and technological
solutions.”
The researchers are working closely
with companies such as GasTerra,
Eneco, Stedin, Q-Park, Shell and
Hy-Truck. The companies participate
by providing hardware, expertise or
funding. GasTerra enabled the project
to purchase a hydrogen fuel-cell car,
the Hyundai ix35 FCEV. The car will be
delivered in the spring of 2015 and can
be used for further research and for
promotional purposes.
Research Highlights
The Green Village
Anneke Verkerk ([email protected])
The design of successful solid catalysts involve the preparation of materials with the adequated textural properties, i.e. surface area and porosity, together with the generation of active and selective sites on the surface of the catalysts.
There are cases in which those sites
can be introduced during the synthesis
of the material as a part of the global
structure, or can be generated during
a multistep catalyst preparation. We
will present the synthesis of solid
catalysts with well defined single
or multiple sites, following the two
methodologies described above.
In the first case, crystalline and
amorphous but structured materials
will be directly prepared in which the
catalytic active sites are Brønsted and
Lewis acids. In that case I will present
the importance for the catalytic
phenomena of short and long range
molecular interactions which are
dictated by the chemical composition
and crystalline-pore structure of the
catalyst.
Following the second method
of catalyst preparation, metal
nanoparticles will be generated on a
previously prepared solid material,
generating mono and bifunctional
catalysts in which the metal centers
and those generated on the solid
support can act jointly or in successive
steps of a multistep reaction.
Examples of catalytic process
based on solid catalysts with well
defined single and multisites will
be presented, showing, how those
original concepts have turned into
industrially applied catalysts.
2015 Jacobus van 't Hoff Lecture
Materials Design for catalysis: From the Laboratory to Industrial Applications
Avelino Corma
Avelino Corma, Professor at the
Instituto de Tecnología Química
(CSIC-UPV), has been carrying out
research in heterogeneous catalysis
in academia and in collaboration with
companies for nearly 30 years. He has
worked on fundamental aspects of
acid-base and redox catalysis with the
aim of understanding the nature of the
active sites, and reaction mechanisms.
With these bases have developed
catalysts that are being used
commercially in several industrial
processes. He is an internationally
recognized expert in solid acid and
bifunctional catalysts for oil refining,
petrochemistry and chemical process,
especially in the synthesis and
application of zeolite catalysts. He has
published more than 900 research
papers, and inventor on more than
100 patents. Corma earned his BS
in Chemistry at Valencia University,
PhD at Madrid under direction of
Prof. Antonio Cortes, and spent two
years postdoc at Queen´s University.
He has received the Ciapetta and
Houdry Awards of the North American
Catalysis Society, the F. Gault
Award of the European Catalysis
Society, the M. Boudart Award on
Catalysis by the North American and
European Catalysis Societies, the G.
J. Somorjai ACS Award on Creative
Catalysis, the Breck Award of the
International Zeolite Association,
the National Award of Science and
technology of Spain, the ENI Award
on Hydrocarbon Chemistry, the Royal
Society of Chemistry Centenary Prize,
Solvay Pierre-Gilles de Gennes Prize
for Science and Industry and Gold
Medal for the Chemistry Research
Career 2001-2010 in Spain, La Grande
Médaille de l'Académie des sciences
de France 2011 and Honour Medal
to the Invention from the Fundación
García Cabrerizo in Spain. Gold Medal
Foro QUÍMICA y SOCIEDAD to all
his reseach career, Gran Medaille of
the Science French Academy, Edith
Flanigen Lectureship Eastman Lecture,
Director´s Distinguished Lecture
Series Pacific Northwest National
Laboratory´s. Prince of Asturias Award
for Technical & Scientific Research
2014.
“Doctor Honoris Causa” by Utrecht
University (2006), UNED (2008),
München Technological University
(2008), Universidad Jaime I de
Castellón (2008), Universidad de
Valencia (2009), Bochüm University
(2010), Universidad de Alicante (2010),
Ottawa University (2012) Universidad
Delft Technological University (2013)
Jilin University (China) (2013),
University of Bucarest (2014).
News
On 8 April, the opening ceremony of new Process and Energy Department (P&E) lab took place, after many months of preparations, relocation and reconstruction. The opening ceremony was held in the Frans Nieuwstadt Hall, named after the first Chairman of this department. The new large-scale lab will be used mainly by the P&E department but will also function as shared experimental facility of the TU Delft Process Technology Institute (DPTI).
This ceremony brought together many
old friends of the department. One
of them, Prof. André Bardow (RWTH
Aachen), gave a lecture about CO2
utilization. . Another guest speaker,
Peter Veenstra from Shell, provided
insights in the development of Process
Technology in the industry. The lecture
session ended with the inspiring
talk from Prof. Bas Haring University
Leiden), in which he emphasized to the
audience the importance of ‘out-of-the-
box’ thinking.
The highlight of the event was of
course the official opening address
by the Rector Magnificus of TU Delft,
Prof. Karel Luyben, followed by the
performance by two professional
acrobats, which pushed the
atmosphere to the climax.
After the performance, all guests
were invited to the new lab for a
tour and the researchers had the
chance to present their work in the
form of posters. The guests were also
challenged by quiz questions about
the research projects undergoing in
the new facility.
The whole event ended with a dinner
buffet. The guests were happily dining,
drinking and chatting. There was an
aura of pride in the hall. In the end,
all the efforts during the relocation
was worthwhile. The night fell and
tomorrow is a new start for the whole
department.
The Opening Ceremony of the new Process and Energy laboratoryRelocation, Reunion and Restart
Weiwei Li
Xth Scientific- Technical Award “Ciutat d’Algemesí” for Tania Rodenas
Tania Rodenas (former postdoc at
the Catalysis Engineering section)
together with Ignacio Luz (Instituto
de Tecnología Química (ITQ), Spain)
have been awarded the 2nd Scientific-
Technical Award “Ciutat de Algemesí”
for Young Researchers (Valencia,
Spain) for the work entitled “Metal-
organic framework nanosheets in
polymer composite materials for gas
separation”, published earlier this year
in Nature Materials by a combined
team of TUDelft, ITQ (Spain) and Max
Planck Institut (Germany) researchers.
This award recognises outstanding
results by under-35 researchers from
the region of Valencia in Spain. This
mixed matrix membrane research
is an ongoing topic in the Catalysis
Engineering section, a.o. in the
M4CO2 and CrystEngMOFMMM
projects.
Honorary doctorate Ghent University for Prof. Mark van LoosdrechtO
On 20 March 2015, Ghent University
awarded an honorary doctorate
to Prof. Mark van Loosdrecht. He
was nominated by the Faculty of
Bioscience Engineering. His honorary
doctorate was awarded during the
Dies Natalis of Ghent University.
With this honorary doctorate,
the great scientific merit of Mark
van Loosdrecht is recognised. He
combines fundamental research
with engineering and “stimulates
innovation in wastewater treatment,
through new sustainable process
techniques that are characterized
by compactness, energy neutrality,
reduced greenhouse gas emissions
and the recovery of raw materials”.
Transport Phenomena — Online Course (MOOC)Peter Hamersma (Product & Process Engineering) and Robert Mudde
(Transport Phenomena) are currently working hard on a massive open online
course (MOOC): Basics of Transport Phenomena. They aim to have this new
course available in October 2015. This MOOC covers the basic framework of
Transport Phenomena that can be applied on a broad spectrum of engineering
problems, that involve transfer of heat, mass and momentum. This course
teaches Transport Phenomena through examples of everyday processes at
home, in the lab and in industry. The course also shows how to solve and
assess a model from a quantitative perspective.
You are invited to enroll in the course for free on:
https://www.edx.org/course/basics-transport-phenomena-delftx-tp101x
QS rankingAfter a number of years of
climbing in the QS ranking
(subject chemical engineering),
DPTI now went back from
a joint 9th position to place
14. DPTI aims for a steady
position in the top 10; the DPTI
management team is looking
into the causes and ways to
improve our future scores.
News
Mark van Loosdrecht elected member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE)
Prof. Mark van Loosdrecht has
been elected a foreign member
of the National Academy of
Engineering (NAE) in the
United States. It is considered
a major professional honour
for engineers to be elected
a member of the National
Academy of Engineering. The
NAE was founded in 1964 as
an independent non-profit
institution and advises the US
government, among others, in
relation to engineering. In all,
the NAE has appointed 67 new
US members and twelve foreign
members. This brings the total
number of US members to
2,263 and the number of foreign
members to 221.
ACHEMA 2015 Congress, June 15-19, 2015, Frankfurt am Main; www.Achema.de
23th International Conference on Bioencapsulation, September 2 - 4, 2015, Delft; www.bioencapsulation.net/2015_Delft
ECCE10-ECAB3-EPIC5, Sept. 27 – Oct. 1, 2015, Nice; www.ecce2015.eu
AIChE annual meeting, November 8-13, 2015, Salt Lake City;www.aiche.org/conferences/aiche-annual-meeting/2015
For a complete overview, see: process.tudelft.nl
PROSE Award for Distillation book seriesThe series of three books on
distillation by Zarko Olujic
(TU Delft), Eva Sorensen (UCL
Chemical Engineering), Andrzej
Gorak (TU Dortmund), Hartmut
Schoenmakers (TU Dortmund) was
recognised as a ‘landmark work’ in
the field of Physics and Chemistry
in the 2015 PROSE awards. The
American Publishers Awards
for Professional and Scholarly
Excellence — known as the PROSE
Awards — recognize outstanding
books, journals and e-products
as judged by peer publishers,
librarians and academics.
How academia can collaborate with industryNot all academic and industrial
organizations and scientists are
aware of the possibilities and
pitfalls of industrial-academic
collaboration. The most important
factor is a willingness of industrial
and academic collaborators to
understand and respect each
other’s core objectives, Jack Pronk,
professor at Delft University of
Technology, states in the March
issue of Nature Biotechnology.
Together with colleagues in the
field of biotechnology, he gives
practical recommendations for
successful initiation and execution
of collaborations.
www.tudelft.nl/en/current/latest-
news/article/detail/samenwerken-
tussen-universiteit-en-bedrijfsleven-
hoe-doe-je-dat/
News
ADREM
One month ago, the ADREM
project with a budget of 6
MEuro was granted by the EU
to a consortium led by DPTI
researchers. ADREM stands for
Adaptable Reactors for Resource
and Energy Efficient Methane
Valorisation. In ADREM, leading
industries and university groups
in process intensification, catalytic
reactor engineering and process
control team up to develop
intensified adaptable catalytic
reactor systems for converting
methane to C2+ hydrocarbons.
