Cutting edge process technology research from around the world came to Delft at the annual Jacobus van ‘t Hoff lecture.
On June 20 2016 the TU Delft Process Technology Institute invited Ronald R. Chance, of the firm Algenol Biotech Fort Myers, Florida and School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering of the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia to present his team’s work.
He presented a promising solar energy powered, two-step process to convert carbon dioxide into biofuel using blue-green micro algae.
The process uses industrially produced carbon dioxide or power plant flue gas as a feedstock for the algae. In a photobioreactor of specially engineered plastic, the algae photosynthetically produce diluted ethanol which is purified to fuel grade ethanol. In contrast to crop biofuel production, no farmland or freshwater is needed. System integration of the supply of process electricity and heat creates lower energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The process has a lower carbon footprint than other transportation biofuels and shows potential to be scaled up.
Professor Sang Yup Lee kicked off the series in November 2013. He is dean and professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), and presented his team’s research on the metabolic engineering of micro-organisms to produce natural and synthetic chemicals.
A year later the theme was flow chemistry with Professor Klavs Jensen, head of chemical engineering at MIT speaking of micro reactors that enable controllable chemical reactions in miniaturized continuous flow systems at higher pressures and temperatures. He showed examples of applications in optics, electronics energy conversion and biomedicine.
In 2015 Avelino Corma, professor at the Instituto de Tecnología Química, Valencia, Spain, explained his research on the design of solid catalysts to maximise process efficiency and selectivity. Multifunctional catalysts allow cascade reactions in processes related to chemicals and biomass transformation to produce chemical products and fuels. The work has successfully been implemented in industrial processes.
The series honours Jacobus van ‘t Hoff, alumnus of TU Delft, and the winner of the first Nobel prize for chemistry in recognition for his foundational work on physical chemistry.
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