Details

Description of the organisation

The Politecnico di Torino was founded in 1857, and it has 30000 students, 700 Ph.D. students and more than 3000 employees.

The group of “Chemical Reaction Engineering for Energy and Environment” at Politecnico di Torino (Department of Applied Science and Technology) includes 7 academic members and more than 20 contract researchers (including 12 PhDs) having different and complementary expertise. The main research activities of the group are in the field of environmental catalysis, the development of sustainable chemical processes and biochemical process engineering.

As far as the CO2 valorization and solar fuels production are concerned, the group is/has been a partner of different EU research projects indicated below. Prof. Guido Saracco is also a network member of EERA–AMPEA (www.eera-set.com). Prof. Saracco has been coordinating several projects in the area of solar fuels either at European or at a national level, as later described. The group is integrated for the present effort by a full professor of physics, Giovanni Barbero (EIS characterisation) and an associate professor of bioengineering, Prof. Bernardo Ruggeri (bioreactor modelling and design).

Facilities and personnel of the IIT@PoliTo (http://shr.iit.it/), linked third party of PoliTo, will also be used in this project with special reference to electrode characterisaiton and research coordination duies.

Staff members

  • Prof. ssa Debora Fino got her PhD in chemical engineering at Politecnico di Torino in 2003 where she is currently associate professor in Chemical Plant Desig. Author of about 100 papers on chemical reaction engineering, separation processes and multifunctional reactors, she has been scientific responsible of several EU projects (TOP-EXPERT, ADDNANO, FlameSOFC, BIOROBUR). She has already been the Coordinator of an industrial project (BioH2Power- From Waste to Renewable gaseous fuels) and of the platform project (Ecofood-Environment and Energy sustainability, Waste reduction, By-products reuse of t.he food chain) funded by Regione Piemonte.
  • Prof. Samir Bensaid achieved his Master of Science in Chemical Engineering in 2006 at Politecnico di Torino (Italy), after having completed his studies at Strathclyde University of Glasgow (UK) and Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique (CEA) at Saclay-Paris (France). He got his PhD in Chemical Engineering in 2010 at Politecnico di Torino, where he is now Assistant Professor of Industrial Chemistry. His research activity concerns the field of catalysis and reaction engineering, and specifically the mathematical modeling of chemical reactors applied to heterogeneous systems, as testified by more than 35 publications in international ISI journals from 2009 up to now.
  • Prof. Nunzio Russo graduated cum laude in Chemistry at University of Torino and got his PhD in Materials Science and Technology at Politecnico di Torino where he is currently associate professor in Industrial and Technological Chemistry. He is author of more than 100 papers on refereed international journals, whose topics concern the research fields above reported. He has been actively taking part in several European research projects.
  • Prof. Bernardo Ruggeri, associate professor in bioengineering, is active in the following research fields: modelling bioreactors and scale-up criteria for large-scale cultivation plants; evaluation of human activities impacts using LCA approach; assessment of process sustainability by ESI and EROI approaches; fuzzy modelling of new bioreactor’s configurations including landfill bioreactor; development of Microbial Fuel Cell devices for scale-up purpose; advanced development of new bioreactors for hydrogen and methane production in anaerobic conditions using organic refuses.
  • Prof. Giovanni Barbero, PhD in Physics at the University of Torino and full professor of physics at the Politecnico di Torino. He is member of editorial Board of the Int. Journal “Liquid Crystals”. His most intensive research lines are on : i) Elastic description of Nematic Liquid Crystals; ii) Surface Energy of Nematic Liquid Crystals; iii) Influence of ions on the response of an electrolytic cell to an external stimulus with specific reference to EIS methods. He published more than 250 papers in international scientific journals (h-index:24; citation:>2150; Scopus database).
  • Prof. Guido Saracco graduated and got his PhD in Chemical Engineering at Politecnico di Torino where he is now full professor in Industrial and Technological Chemistry. Author of about 213 papers on chemical reaction engineering and separation processes (h-index:37; citation:>4950; Scopus database), he has been scientific responsible of several EU projects (SYLOC-DEXA; BIOFEAT; HyTRAN, MOREPOWER; FLEXHEAT; ATLANTIS; SOLHYDROMICS, ARTIPHYCTION, ECO2CO2).

Description of the organisation

TUD will take part in CELBICON with the research group of Prof. M.Makkee.

The group of Prof. Kapteijn consists by four academic staff and about twenty-five PhD students and post-docs: all are pure chemist or chemical engineer or the combination thereof by profession and will bring the scientific world in the real life applications. The Catalysis Engineering group focuses on the development & demonstration of new catalysis and reactor engineering concepts devoted to sustainable technologies with emphasis on process intensification, feedstock efficiency, and reduction of both energy usage as well as the influence of human and industrial activities on the environment. The generic topics are:

Structured catalysts and reactors: Regular arrangement of catalysts in reactors decouples the scale dependent and independent phenomena, such as intrinsic kinetics, thermodynamics, mass and heat transport and hydrodynamics. This allows their independent optimization so that all rate processes in a reactor are in balance and the catalyst is used in the way it was designed for. Structuring ranges from the molecular to the reactor scale in a hierarchical way. Microscopically zeolites, MOFs and well defined clusters are used. Combined with multifunctional operation this approach can give a large boost to process intensification

Multifunctional catalysis and reactors: Catalytic conversions are frequently performed in isolation. Often tedious and/or energy intensive separations are needed to purify products before further processing. Smart combination of catalytic reactions or reaction and separation may eliminate this need, allowing higher single pass conversions, reducing separation effort and energy consumption and increasing process efficiency. Major challenge is to synthesise those combinations that result in overlapping of the operational regimes of the catalytic reactions and/or the separation processes. New membranes or catalysts are often needed.

Rate and transport processes: The overall performance of catalysts or sorbents in a process is the result of all contributing phenomena. With thermodynamics determining the driving forces for chemical conversion and transport phenomena, the kinetics of these processes determine the productivity and yields. Transient and steady state techniques are applied to determine catalytic reaction kinetics. Sorption of single components and mixtures are essential for correct description of diffusion in membranes and to determine the correct reactant concentrations at the active site of catalysts. Advanced techniques are used to determine the transport parameters.

Staff members

  • Prof. Freek Kapteijn: graduated and got his PhD in Chemistry at University of Amsterdam and currently full professor in Catalysis Engineering. He is author of over 500 papers on chemical reaction engineering and separation processes with over 18000 citation and a H-factor of 68. He has been scientific active in several EU projects and responsible in several national projects.
  • Prof. Michiel Makkee: graduated and got his PhD in Chemical engineering at Delft University of Technology, was senior scientist at Exxon Chemical and return to Delft as associate professor in 1990. He is author of more 210 papers and is (co)-inventor in 25 (application)patents mostly on industrial chemical applications with over 7000 citations and a H-factor of 48. Currently, he is also part time professor at Politecnico di Torino on sustainable process technology and consultant to some industries. He is active in European and national projects and involved in several industrial sponsored projects.
  • Prof. Jorge Gascon: Special t professor in Chemical Engineering since 2014. Co-author of more than 110 publications in international journals with over 3000 citation and a H-factor of 31. He develops structured micro-porous materials (zeolites and MOFs) for applications in catalysis and separation. By using such materials, higher atom efficiency and less energy demanding processes can be developed. Besides the clear industrial driving force of this research, structured systems are attractive for their large, tuneable and well-defined uniform pores. In this sense, crystalline micro-porous materials may be used as structured nano-reactors, with the possibility to see the effect of confinement of the active sites.

Description of the organisation

The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is a higher education and research organisation with about 9,500 employees, 25,000 students, and a total annual budget of about 800 million Euros. KIT was established on 01/10/2009 as merger of Universität Karlsruhe (founded in 1825), one of Germany’s leading research universities, and Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe (founded in 1956), one of the largest research centres in the Helmholtz Association. The Engler-Bunte-Institute (EBI) with its Division of Combustion Technology (EBI-VBT) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology is one of the major institutes within the department of Chemical Engineering at the KIT. Research is conducted at EBI-VBT by 2 professors, 4 senior engineers, ca. 20 research engineers and several master students with the support of ca. 15 technical and administrative staff members. The main research areas are aimed at phenomenological, theoretical and applied studies concerning combustion devices or more generally reacting flows and the related peripheral equipment. EBI-VBT is very well equipped with all relevant advanced experimental diagnostics, pilot plants, test rigs, in-house developed CFD packages, the necessary computing cluster and has access to several national high performance computing centers.

In the field of hydrogen and fuel cell-related processes KIT is currently co-ordinating the ongoing FCH-JU project, “Integrated High-Temperature Electrolysis and Methanation for Effective Power to Gas Conversion”, HELMETH. Several contributions to projects related with gas turbine combustion of liquid fuel such as aero engines (European projects as i.e. INTELLECT-DM, MUSCLES, CFD4C, TECC-AE, ALFA-BIRD, KIAI, NEWAC, LEMCOTEC) provide this partner with high level experience in the investigation and optimization of spray nozzles and dense sprays as well as 2 phase flows in general. The new head of EBI-VBT, Prof. D. Trimis, brings also significant experience in reforming and fuel cell-related processes from the project activities in his previous chair at the Technical University of Freiberg as e.g. major partner in MC-WAP (Molten carbonate fuel cells for waterborne applications); scientific co-ordinator of FlameSOFC (Fuel Flexible, Air-regulated, Modular and Electrically Integrated SOFC-System), major partner of the ongoing FCH-JU project BioROBUR (Biogas robust processing with combined catalytic reformer and trap).

Staff members

  • Prof. Dimosthenis Trimis (male) graduated in 1990 from the Technical University of Athens in Mechanical Engineering and received his PhD from the University of Erlangen in 1995 in Chemical Engineering. 2006 he took over as full professor the chair of Gas and Heat Technology at the Technical University of Freiberg. Since 2013 he is full professor for combustion technology and head of the Engler-Bunte-Institute, Division of Combustion Technology at KIT. He has a good experience with European collaborative projects (e.g. scientific co-ordinator of FP6 IP-FlameSOFC, overall co-ordinator of FP7 FlexHEAT, CEREXPRO, HELMETH, scientific responsible of HIMOCAT, BIOFLAM, MC-WAP, FC-DISTRICT, DAPHNE).
  • Prof. Nikolaos Zarzalis (male) graduated 1980 in Mechanical Engineering and received his PhD in 1986 from the Technical University of Karlsruhe. He is since 2001 Prof. for applied combustion technology at EBI-VBT and has 20 years of research experience on gas turbine related combustion and generally reacting flows under high pressure due to his stay in industry (MTU München) in the years 1990-2001.
  • Dr. Peter Habisreuther (male) graduated 1991 in Mechanical Engineering and received his PhD in 2002 from the Technical University of Karlsruhe. He is working since 1991 at EBI-VBT in KIT. After his doctoral thesis he became leader of the theoretical department at EBI-VBT. In CELBICON he will assist the theoretical and numerical simulation part of the research work.

Description of the organisation

University of Montpellier is a research-intensive university where education and research cover most of the Scientific and Technological fields. UM gathers around 41000 students and 4300 staffs with an overall budget of 380 million euros. The studies are organized in the following fields: Fundamental and applied Sciences, Human and Social Sciences (law, economy), Health studies. Research is structured within 72 laboratories in partnership with well-recognized research organizations such as CNRS, IRD, INRA or CIRAD. Moreover, in terms of innovation UM is linked to 8 Competitiveness Clusters in the Region Languedoc Roussillon. These clusters include enterprises, training centers, laboratories (public or private) with the goal to create new collaborations and projects for a better competitiveness at the international level. At the international level, UM is one of the most attractive university in France in terms of student exchange (it represents more than 7500 incoming students for the last years), in terms of research collaboration (for example, the number of PhD in co-supervision with international universities is around 120 for the two merged institutions), as well as in terms of international projects (Research and Education). The dynamism and the influence of its laboratories, coupled with a professionalizing policy, make the university contribute strongly to the socioeconomic development of the region, through the employability of its students. The university takes part in 6 competitiveness clusters that join together form a network of companies, research units and educational structures, offering collaborative and competitive solutions for joint projects. Very recently, University of Montpellier (UM) received the “HR Excellence in Research” award from the European Commission (EC) for its Human Resources Strategy for Research (HRS4R). UM is the first French university to receive this distinction. The HR Excellence in Research award recognizes University of Montpellier’s efforts concerning its Human Resources policy, including researcher recruitment, career management, specific needs of the research profession, support for national and international research projects, and PhD student supervision.

The laboratory "Aggregates, Interfaces and Materials for Energy" (led by D. Jones, full senior research scientist CNRS) of the Institute Charles Gerhardt, is a joint CNRS-University Montpellier research unit labelled as a Carnot Institute by the French Ministry of Research in recognition of its collaborative research with industry. Its fuel cells and hydrogen research program has been developed over the past 15 years and the Fuel Cells group currently comprises 9 staff members and 10 post-docs and doctoral students. It has a strong international reputation for its contributions to the field of proton conducting membrane development, modification and characterization, and has pioneered development of polymer membrane materials for use in the intermediate and high temperature ranges. The group has contributed to the understanding of mechanisms leading to membrane and MEA failure in PEM fuel cells and is currently developing novel deposition approaches and alternative low dimensional electrode support material architectures for inorganic oxides and carbides, and non-PGM fuel cell catalysts.

Staff members

  • Dr Deborah Jones is a CNRS Full Senior Researcher, author of 200 publications on materials synthesis and characterisation, proton exchange membranes, MEA degradation, and 8 patents, Senior Editor of the journal Fuel Cells, CNRS representative for EERA Hydrogen & Fuel Cells.
  • Dr Marc Dupont (UM) was formerly employed at the THALES Company, where he was responsible for the company's electrolyser programme. He is a specialist in single cell and short stack characterisation.
  • David Bourgogne is a CNRS engineer expert in fuel cell and electrolyser characterisation.
  • Dr Sara Cavaliere is a UM lecturer developing novel electrospinning deposition techniques for polymers, inorganic materials and metals.

Description of the organisation

The Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) is the largest public institution dedicated to research in Spain and the third largest in Europe. Belonging to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the Secretary of State for Research, Development and Innovation, its main objective is to develop and promote research that will help bring about scientific and technological progress. It has a staff of more than 13,000 employees, among these about 3,300 are permanent researchers and about 4,300 are pre- and post-doctoral researchers. The CSIC has 71 institutes or centres distributed throughout Spain. In addition, it has 54 Joint Research Units with universities or other research institutions. There is also a delegation in Brussels. CSIC has considerable experience in both participating and managing R&D projects and training of research personnel. Under the 7th Framework Programme CSIC has signed 724 actions (including 62 coordinated by CSIC and 45 ERC projects). Funding wise, CSIC is listed the 6th organisation in Europe in the 7th Framework Programme. As to the number of projects signed by CSIC within each programme, the distributions is People 36,4%, Cooperation 32,1%, Capacities 25,2% and Ideas 6,3%. If we take into account funding, the ranking would be different: Cooperation 45%, Ideas 28%, People 19%, Capacities 8%. In addition, CSIC presents a large participation in other European programmes as LIFE+, INTERREG, EMRP, RFCS, ERANET, etc. Dr. M. Auxiliadora Prieto, runs the Polymer Biotechnology group as part of the Environmental Biology Department of the Biological Research Centre (CIB) of CSIC (http://www.cib.csic.es/en/grupo.php?idgrupo=76). Dr. M. A Prieto, is staff Scientist at CSIC and one of the leading European microbiologists focused in the bio-based polymer field. She is an expert in the area of bioplastics and its industrial applications. The Polymer Biotechnology group is one of the most active research teams of the CIB Environmental Biology Department. The group aims to explore and exploit the bacterial abilities for producing and degrading plastics in order to contribute to planet sustainability, using tools of molecular biology and metabolic engineering, combined with new omic technologies and synthetic biology. She has huge experience in microbial metabolism for the molecular characterization of pathways related to biosynthesis and biodegradation of bioproducts. Current focuses of the group include, among others: i) Implementation of sustainable processes involving the use of wastes and syngas to generate biomaterials; ii) Studying the metabolic and regulatory networks for bacterial polyhydroxyalkanoate accumulation based on System Biology approaches; iii) Design and bioproduction of second generation functionalized materials with new biocide properties and susceptible to chemical modification; iv) Synthetic Biology based design and development of new downstream systems to process the bacterial biomass for the separation of intracellular bioproducts. The research team currently comprises four postdoctoral scientist, four PhD students and one technician.

Staff members

  • Dr. Auxiliadora Prieto. Head of the Polymer Biotechnology Lab. The significance of the research developed in the group is reflected in highly-cited publications in leading journals (more than 65), as well as in collaborations with other scientists from top institutes all over the world. Dr Prieto has participated in, led and coordinate national (11) and international projects (4).She is main inventor of five international patents related to biopolymer production, three of them licensed to Biotech SMEs dedicated to the production of bioplastics.
  • Dr. Olga Revelles. Senior researcher at Polymer Biotecnology Lab. Her research interest lies on the study of the bacterial metabolism and physiology under different biological context. She did her PhD in Prof JL Ramos' lab, one of the leading world microbiologists, her first postdoc stay at Prof. Sauer's group (ETH, Switzerland) to work on metabolomics and fluxomics. Second postdoc at JC Portais' lab (INSA, France) in System Biology and a third postdoc at Dr. P Soucaille's lab (INSA, France) to get a deep knowledge in metabolic engineering of anaerobic bacteria. At Polymer Biotechnology Lab her research goal is focused in metabolic engineering of bacteria to convert chemically simple carbon precursors (syngas) into a value-added bio-based product such as bioplastics.
  • Dr. Ana M. Hernández-Arriaga. Senior researcher at Polymer Biotecnology Lab. Dr. Hernández-Arriaga is an expert in plasmid biology, molecular biology and gene regulation. She did her PhD in Prof M. Espinosa laboratory, a world-leading group in plasmid biology and with a wide expertise in molecular biology, biochemistry and plasmid biology. During this period she acquired a strong background in these areas and she became an expert in the field of transcriptional regulation. She did her postdoc at Prof. Ramón Díaz-Orejas laboratory, one of the world leaders in bacterial Toxin-Antitoxin systems, where she focused her research on the molecular bases involved in the expression and regulation of such a systems.

Description of the organisation

The Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB is one of 66 institutes of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Germany's leading organization for application-oriented research with research units in Europe, the USA and Asia. The majority of the 23.800 staff members are qualified scientists and engineers, who work with an annual research budget of €2,06 billion. Their services are solicited by customers and contractual partners in industry, the service sector and public administration.

Fraunhofer’s project involvement will be through the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology (IGB). IGBs scientists are experts in innovative environmental engineering technologies. The offered solutions cover the whole spectrum starting from market analysis through R&D to the finished product. At the end of 2014, the Fraunhofer IGB had 365 staff members of which some 90 percent were scientific or technical employees.

Participation in CELBICON will be primarily through the Fraunhofer IGB institute branch BioCat – Biological, Chemical and Electrocatalysis and the department of Physical Process Technology (PT).

BioCat focuses on the development of chemical, biotechnological and electrochemical catalysts and the conversion of renewable resources and CO2 into value added products with these catalysts. Especially the combination of e.g. electrochemical and biotechnological process steps for efficient overall processes represents the key expertise of BioCat.

PT is specialized in research and technology development concerning electro-physical and electro-chemical processes and design of associated cells, scale-up and system integration.

Staff members

  • Prof. Dr. Volker Sieber studied Chemistry and Biochemistry in Bayreuth, (Germany) and Delaware (USA). After getting his PhD he worked as research fellow at CALTECH, Pasadena (USA) with Prof. F.H. Arnold optimising industrially relevant enzymes. From 2000-2008 Volker Sieber held various R&D positions in the chemical industry (Degussa AG, Süd-Chemie AG). He became full professor at Technische Universität München and head of the Fraunhofer IGB Straubing branch BioCat (Germany) in 2008 and 2009 resp. and is an expert in bio- and chemo-catalysis and its combination for the conversion of renewables. Volker Sieber filed more than 10 patents in this field, is part of review panels for several grant agencies and journals and coordinated several national and international consortia (e.g. EU Project ChiBio under FP7).
  • Dr. Fabian Steffler is scientist for biological catalyst development and design at the Straubing Institute branch BioCat. He obtained his PhD in 2014 and has over 8 years work experience in the field of industrial biotechnology. He has thus broad experiences in application of molecular biological, microbiological and biochemical methods. His core competences are protein engineering, downstream processing and fermentation.
  • Dr. Lenard-Istvan Csepei obtained his MSc. in Applied Electrochemistry at the Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca (Romania). There he used a method for the quantification of the antioxidant strength and developed a new electrochemical method to investigate the kinetics of the reaction. In 2011 he obtained his PhD in the field of heterogeneous catalysis at the Fritz-Haber Institute in Berlin (Prof. R. Schlögl). During the postdoc stay at the Institute of Power Engineering, TU Dresden he took part in several energy-related projects involving various chairs of the university and industrial partners. At the Fraunhofer IGB institute branch BioCat he develops new heterogeneous- and electrocatalysts for energy conversion processes.
  • Dr. Tobias Gärtner is Group Manager and scientist for chemical catalyst development and design at the Straubing Institute branch BioCat. He obtained his PhD in 2009 and has over five years of experience in valorization of renewable resources and waste streams with combined chemical and biotechnological methods. His core competences are organic and inorganic chemistry as well as analytics filing several publications. Within his team he is responsible for soluble homogeneous inorganic materials for catalysis and possible resources for catalyst preparation.
  • Dipl.-Ing. Siegfried Egner is the Head of Department Physical Process Technology at IGB. He has a degree in engineering of energy technologies and was a Managing Director in SME businesses working in the field of environmental process technology for over sixteen years prior to joining Fraunhofer. His special expertise is the field of project management. Experience gathered includes development, design and manufacturing of innovative components as well as engineering, marketing and introduction of new systems into industrial markets.
  • Dr. Thomas Michael Scherer is Group Manager of the Physico-chemical Water Technologies Group in the IGB Department Physical Process Technology. He holds chemistry diploma and PhD. His core competences are complex-, redox- and electrochemistry, analytics, separation and purification techniques. He is responsible for the field of innovative technologies for electrochemical processes and corresponding cell design.

Description of the organisation

AVT is a worldwide recognized leader (Cleantech Top 100 Company) in catalytic biomass conversion into furanic building blocks and high throughput technology. It has created an impressive patent portfolio in this area and is a proven adept of the open innovation model. From 2011 onwards, these novel concepts are demonstrated in a first of a kind pilot facility at the Chemelot business park in Geleen, the Netherlands. Therefore, the research results of the CELBICON project can directly be evaluated on pilot scale when relevant. AVT has over 140 employees and employs a team of 65+ highly educated professionals (>40 PhD’s) who are experts in biomass pretreatment and conversion, polymer science, organic chemistry, catalysis, engineering of robotic systems, process engineering, statistics, analytics, cheminformatics and software development. AVT's employees are dynamic and enthusiastic people, open-minded, ambitious and professional. The company fosters creativity as well as a result-oriented, customer-oriented attitude.

Staff members

  • Dr. Ed de Jong is since 2007 VP Development at Avantium Technologies BV, Amsterdam. He has over 20 years proven expertise (more than 70 scientific papers and 8 patents) in biomass research and training, (bio-)chemical pretreatment of lignocellulose, chemical and enzymatic conversions of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. He did application development for furan based biofuels and biopolymers, furan resins, paper and board, lignin based adhesives, colorants, UV-stabilizers, lactic acid etc. He has an extensive network in the biomass producing and utilizing industries and academia. He has ample experience with the implementation of modern management practices, concerning personnel, IT, reporting systems, and partnership customer-supplier relations, etc and has been involved in the setting-up and management of large public-private research projects (PPS) including B-Basic, CatchBio and CCC (carbohydrate competence centre). He has also been leading in setting-up and (scientific) management of several large EU projects (a.o. Eurolignin, Ecobinders, Biosynergy). He is currently Task co-leader of IEA Bioenergy Task 42: Biorefineries; years of experience >15.
  • Dr. Jan Kees van der Waal has a Ph.D. in the synthesis, characterization and catalytic application of zeolite beta titanium and other materials from the University of Delft (Prof van Bekkum 1998). After that he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Shell Research and Technology Centre, Amsterdam in the field of catalyst development for chemicals production. Since 2000 he worked at Avantium and as assistant professor at the Delft University of Technology. As a Principle Scientist with AVT, he is responsible for the heterogeneous catalysis and catalyst preparation and supports all projects within the program Furanics on both technical and scientific issues; years of experience >15.
  • Dr. Klaas Jan Schouten has a PhD in electrochemistry, on the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide. He has experience with various electrocatalytic conversions and electrochemical techniques, and is currently project leader of the Eco2CO2 project at AVT; years of experience > 5
  • Maria Varini has an MSc degree in electrochemistry from the university of Milan. She has expertise in various electroanalytical techniques, and relevant knowledge on electrocatalysis; years of experience > 3

Description of the organisation

 

Climeworks AG (CW) was founded in 2009 as a Spin-off company from ETH Zurich and is registered as a public limited company in Zurich, Switzerland. 

CW provides solutions for efficiently capturing CO2 out of ambient air (“direct air capture”, DAC). Onsite DAC plants from CW offer a competitive and environmentally friendly CO2 supply to its customers. CO2 from CW enables the production of renewable fuels by using Power-to-Gas or Power-to-Liquids technology allowing for efficient storage of renewable energies. These fuels produced from renewable electricity and atmospheric CO2 are carbon-neutral and do not compete with food production for agricultural cropland.

CW is a finalist of the Virgin Earth Challenge and has partnered with Audi AG in the mobility sector with the mutual goal of developing and producing renewable synthetic fuels for transportation.

 

Contacts:

Climeworks AG, Birchstrasse 155, 8050 Zurich, Switzerland
Dominique Kronenberg, 

contact@climeworks.com

+41 44 533 29 99

www.climeworks.com

 

Description of the organisation

GASKATEL was founded in 1997. The company is active in the field of electrochemistry. The development, manufacturing and selling of products like reference electrodes, pH-combined electrodes, acid density sensors, test cells and gas diffusion electrodes is part of GASKATEL’s portfolio as well as contract research and development and consultancy. Although GASKATEL is a small SME, it has customers all over the world.

Staff members

  • Dr. Hans-Joachim Kohnke studied physics at the University of Goettingen (Germany). After getting his Diploma he joined the group of Prof. Winsel at the University of Kassel where he received his doctoral degree in 1996.
    Together with Joachim Helmke and Professor Winsel he founded GASKATEL in 1997.
  • Joachim Helmke studied Physics at the University of Kassel (Germany) and wrote his diploma thesis in the group of Professor Winsel. He worked for 4 Years at the University as scientific assistance before he joined GASKATEL in 1998.
  • Dr. Tanja Kurzenknabe studied Chemistry at the University of Kassel (Germany) where she also received her doctoral degree. Dr. Kurzenknabe joined GASKATEL in 2002.
  • Hrihoriy Heller studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Nikolajew (Ukraine). After having hold several positions at different companies in the Ukraine Mr. Heller moved to Germany in 2000. He joined GASKATEL in 2002.

Description of the organisation

Gensoric is a High-Technology company driven by a unique expertise in the field of electrochemical analysis and synthesis at directly heated electrodes. Gensoric was founded by Dr. Flechsig in 2009 as a spin-off of the University of Rostock and looks back on a research background of over 20 years. Therefore the Gensoric GmbH owns an international portfolio of more than 20 patents in 8 patent families, 11 of which are already protected in 9 different countries. Other patents for microelectronic devices, biochemical methods and electrochemical test methods are in preparation, especially for a new electrochemical method of temperature measurement.

Gensoric’s unique and widely protected technologies help customers and partners to enter a new level of electrochemistry. Its application ranges from detecting single elements to complex and large bio molecules. Through the combination of heat-induced acceleration and control as well as versatile and effective electrochemical methods, faster, more precise and even unprecedented analysis and syntheses now become feasible

As consortium leader, Gensoric GmbH has successfully absolved an R & D project within potential growth centers program of Germany’s BMBF (03WKP017). The company has transferred its own expertise of electrochemical DNA analysis based on thermal electrochemistry in a complete system in cooperation with the University of Rostock and various partners.

From this collaboration, Gensoric GmbH was able to lead a core element of the technology in a new application. The resulting ThermaLab ™ system enables to address more and new problems in other areas of technology. In this regard, the company has built up by the appearance on national and international scientific congresses an extensive network of regional and national partners. Renowned research companies such as Fraunhofer and Helmholtz Institute are direct partners.

The Gensoric GmbH is an economic operator in the EU project OxIOSCR (Oxford UK), which has its center in the chemical cancer research. In March 2015 Gensoric GmbH won the H2020-SME-Intrument for its innovative approach of enzymatic electro-bio-catalytic conversion of CO2 in energetic more valuable chemicals. Gensoric’s work and experience in this field will widely additionally support its tasks planned in the CELBICON project.

With the certification to the ISO 9001, the most important international standards for quality management, the company can rely on transparent and cost-effective process and workflow.

The Gensoric GmbH can access on a far-reaching network with scientists and industry representatives through many years of experience in business and research.

Staff members

  • Gerd-Uwe Flechsig, PhD: Dr. Gerd-Uwe Flechsig studied chemistry at the University in 1997. After graduating he received his PhD in analytical chemistry with the thesis: “Electrochemical Stripping-Analysis at Electrically Heated Electrodes” in 2001. After that he worked as a scientific assistant at the department of chemistry at the University of Rostock till 2008 which leads to his Interim Professorship at the University of Rostock. In 2009 he co-founded the Gensoric GmbH in Rostock. In 2011 Dr. Flechsig accepted the Interim Professorship of Analytical Chemistry at the Dept. Of Chemistry, University of Siegen, Germany. His field of working includes the technology of heated electrodes, biochemistry and nano-engineering. He has got about 60 publications and eight granted patents on electrochemical applications. Dr. Flechsig was responsible for all Gensoric Projects up-to-date and supervised the market entry for all Gensoric products such as ThermaLab-System, DNA-Analytical Lab-on-Chip-System and several analytical services.
  • Lars Krüger is the business manager at Gensoric GmbH studied Industrial engineering and holds an MBA of HHL (Germany) and EADA (Barcelona/ Spain). Lars is alumni of the MIT Sloan School of Management Technology Entrepreneurship Program. He co-founded this technology company and has been involved creating, implementing, and verifying the business model for Gensoric GmbH. Lars builds on 10 years professional experiences he has gained with Gensoric GmbH in successful turning F&E Projects (WK-Potential, HiC@re) into valuable products and services. His main areas of expertise are electrochemical and electrical technologies and devices. His current research interests comprise the application of soft computing approaches for the valuation of high-technology spin-offs.
  • Christoph Herz studied chemistry at the university of Rostock. During this he focused on analytical problems at the working group of Dr. Flechsig. Afterwards Mr. Herz took part in an „EXIST“-project in which he was deepening his skills in DNA-analytics and project-management. Because Mr. Herz is known to the effect and the technology of heated electrodes, he is working as scientist for Gensoric and is part of the R&D-team. Furthermore he is supporting the team with specific background-information about costumer’s application.
  • Martin Schönhoff studied Electrical Engineering at the University of Rostock. There he specialised automation and control, simulation and device software engineering. Starting 2011 at the Gensoric GmbH he co-developed and tested several prototypes of devices and electrodes, which ultimately leads to the market entry of Gensoric’s ThermaLab-System. Actually he supervises the development of a Lab-On-Chip-System and several electrode developments for electrochemical applications.

Description of the organisation

HST is a Chemical Engineering Company established on 2003, in Torino, Italy. Today it is a pioneer company in the field of process engineering and, in particular, in the design and construction of turn-key plants for fuel chemical processing, energy production and environmental treatment. HST provides specialized engineering solutions and services on chemical processing, energy, power generation and environmental treatment. HST is always looking to develop and provide new technology to clients on short and medium-term opportunities through continuous work and challenging development. Since its inception in 2003, the company has based its business model on innovation and expertise in finding innovative solutions for chemical processing and energy generation. The proposed project is a natural continuation of the experience and capability of HST.

Hysytech has 4 different business areas in order of revenues share:
I. Construction of turn-key industrial plants (EPC and EPCM)
II. Applied R&D
III. Consultancy (technical and financial)
IV. Maintenance

HST’s experience and technological background covers several fields: from process synthesis to industrial catalysis, from process optimization for renewable energy production to environmental treatment. Thanks to several years experience of its engineers as European researchers, HST sets its activity on technological transfer from university to industries, producing day by day R&D for industrial customers and research centers.

Its main activities refer to chemical engineering, above all chemical plants, industrial catalysis, and energy production/transformation, with a special focus on hydrogen production from hydrocarbons, fuel cell systems and production/use of renewable energies such as biofuels (bioethanol, biomasses and biodiesel), wind and photovoltaic energy. In the hydrogen field, HST is specialized in fuel processing (of natural gas, LPG, gasoline and biodiesel) and realization of test benches, for low, medium and high temperature fuel cells (PEM, DMFC, AFC, MCFC and SOFC).

HST is active since 2013 in the aerospace prototyping for energy storage devices based on electrochemical cells architecture. HST was partner of two local projects coordinated by Thales Alenia Aerospace.

In order to be able to offer specialized service, HST makes a continuous effort to increase the proprietary know-how and technical expertise. Almost 30% of the revenues are invested every year in internal technology developments. After more than ten years passed pursuing the reinvestment strategy there are some success cases (in term of return of investment) to be mentioned. The first relevant investment was related to proprietary fuel processing technology for fuel cells, covered by 3 PCT patents. The technology was licensed to two customers and today HST is in the early stage of industrial production (1000 unit/year capacity). In the field of reforming and fuel cell-related processes HST supplied the group CRE3 (Politecnico di Torino) prototypes in some EU research projects: PROFUEL (On-board gasoline PROcessor for FUEL-cell vehicle application); MINIREF (MINIatuRisEd gasoline Fuel processor for fuel cell vehicle applications); BIOFEAT (Biodiesel Fuel Processor for a Fuel Cell Auxiliary Power Unit for a Vehicle); FlameSOFC (Fuel Flexible, Air-regulated, Modular and Electrically Integrated SOFC-System).

Another significant technology development was accomplished in 2014 with the installation and operation of a proprietary high efficiency biomethane production plant (first in Italy, with all environmental permits granted) from municipal waste digestion and landfill biogas. The plant is top of the class as far as energy efficiency and product quality specification are concerned.

In the field of electrochemistry the company has developed an electrolysis technology based on polimeric membranes for high pressure operation and is developing a special application of a device applicable to liquid electrolyte electrochemical cells (such as alkaline electrolyser and fuel cells) to increase the conversion efficiency. HST has acquired and developed a PCT/European Patent on Electrochemical Thermodynamoabout high efficiency (low capital and low operative cost) electrodes for water electrolysis to produce hydrogen gas;

HST is member of the FCH JTI NEW-IG. The company produces and sells hydrogen production systems based on patents as WO Patent WO/2005/117,176 by Antonini et al.; PCT/EP2004/051207 by Antonini et al., etc.

Moreover the company has been partner in several EU research projects, two of them are focused on photo-electrochemical cells (SOLHYDROMICS, ARTIPHYCTION). HST's duty was the design and manufacturing of first of a kind prototypes, with the target of taking out from the lab the technology to put it in real application environment.

Another field of own development is the pyrolysis and gasification of industrial wastes. HST's gasification technology aims at small scale plants with economic sustainability through conscious design of a robust industrial product, able to overcome the defects of the state of the art technologies.

Each staff member own specific professional skills built-up from direct experience on the field which makes HST a polyvalent and flexible resource. HST’s strength lies on the capability of developing non “off-the-shelf” solutions for the customer’s demanding needs. HST plays a strategic role for companies on the manufacturing and services business by bringing them a dynamic working resource to meet and develop the world’s newest technologies.

HST is a core technology developer for reformers, fuel cells and BOP components, service supplier in research, engineering, production and stationary&dynamic application level; supplier of components, chemical reactors, pilot plants and bench test.

Staff members

  • Massimiliano Antonini: graduated in Chemical Engineering at Politecnico di Torino where he is currently a consultant. He is CEO/President and co-founder of HST since 2003. He is author of a European patent (2004) on a method to build PEM fuel cells components via plasma treatment and co-author of three PCT patents on hydrocarbons reforming and fuel processing. He has been scientific involved in several EU projects (SYLOC-DEXA, BIOFEAT, PROFUEL, HyTRAN, MOREPOWER; FLEXHEAT, ATLANTIS, MC-WAP, PEMTOOL, FLAMESOFC, SOLHYDROMICS, ARTIPHYCTION, BIOROBUR).
  • Andres Saldivia: graduated in Chemical Engineering at Universidad Central de Venezuela and at Politecnico di Torino (double degree). He was assistant professor (ad-honorem) of Mass transfer phenomena and Thermodynamics for chemical engineers at Universidad Central de Venezuela. He has been scientific involved in several EU projects (MC-WAP, PEMTOOL, FLAMESOFC, SOLHYDROMICS, ARTIPHYCTION, BIOROBUR).
  • Simone Solaro: graduated in Chemical Engineering at Politecnico di Torino where he has been consultant in chemical process engineering and lab test management for 7 years. He is an active partner of HST since 2004, leading engineering purchase department and is co-author of three PCT patent pending on hydrocarbons reforming and fuel processing. He has been scientific and administrative involved in several EU projects (ART-DEXA, CATATRAP, BIOFEAT, PROFUEL, HyTRAN, MOREPOWER; FLEXHEAT, MC-WAP, PEMTOOL; FLAMESOFC, SOLHYDROMICS, ARTIPHYCTION, BIOROBUR).

Description of the organisation

Krajete GmbH is a privately owned, young, independent and dynamic start-up company active in the field of industrial biotechnology with gaseous substrates. Krajete GmbH aims at the decarbonisation of road transportation via emission free methane, which can be produced either via CO2 and H2 or via Syngas fermentation, exploiting the patented and registered Krajete process®. The company also aims in becoming one of the market leaders in the field of gaseous substrate fermentation in industrial biotechnology. Process innovation and process intensification for gaseous substrates, by means of experimental work and process modelling, is the business core at Krajete GmbH. The company managed to grow in a highly fluid and competitive market via bilateral contracts with players of the automotive, steel, cement, biogas and energy companies and is ready to capitalise the knowledge accumulated since its foundation.

With its 4 members of highly skilled and trained staff, Krajete GmbH is able to deliver to its customers new processes for the conversion of CO2 and syngas into methane and it is currently expanding the set of products in its portfolio heading toward bulk chemicals and a fully renewable, fully biodegradable bioplastics such as polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA).

Staff members

  • Dr. Alexander Krajete is the founder and CEO of the Krajete GmbH. He holds a MSc in Bioanalytical Chemistry and a PhD in organometallic chemistry, both earned at the Insbruck University, Austria. He then moved as Post-Doc at the university of Berkeley, California where he deepened the use of CO2 as feedstock for chemistry. Once back in Europe, he worked for Norner AS (Norway) and for Borealis, as expert of H2 utilisation, where he is also still employed. He then decided to found his own company, where he can join his extensive knowledge of industrial gases and also his passion for Cleantech and sustainable development.
  • Dr. Fabrizio Sibilla holds a MSc in Food Technologies (University of Milano, Italy) and PhD in industrial Biotechnology (University of Aachen, Germany), together with relevant research experience in the field of Biorefineries (University of Aachen). He then joined the nova-Institut GmbH, an independent Germany based institute as expert of biotechnology and there he matured a 3-years of experience as consultant in the field of gaseous substrates for industrial biotechnology and on biopolymers, with focus on PHA market and applications. His main activity is the techno-economical evaluation of biotech industrial processes and CO2 economy.
  • Dr. Arne Seifert studied Technical Chemistry at the Vienna University of Technology, before starting his PhD in bioprocess technology, at the same university, sponsored by the Krajete GmbH and giving fundamental contribution to the development of the methanation process. Since then, he joined the company as CTO.
  • Sebastien Bernacchi holds a MSc in chemical engineering and biotechnology earned at the Federal Polytechnique of Lausane, Switzerland. After a trainee period as upstream process development engineer at Merck Serono in Switzerland, he then moved to the Vienna University of Technology to pursue his PhD in Bioprocess Technology, sponsored by the Krajete GmbH, where he also works as engineer under the supervision of Arne Seifert.

Description of the organisation

M.T.M. s.r.l., an Italian company headquartered in Cherasco (IT), is the owner of a number of relevant brands such as BRC Gas Equipment, BRC compressors, CUBOGAS and BRC FuelMaker. Throughout the years the continue research towards innovation has made M.T.M. s.r.l. the world leader in manufacturing and marketing of components and complete systems for alternative fuel solutions (e.g. LPG, CNG, LDI).

M.T.M. s.r.l., is a vertically integrated company which is continuously investing in R&D and innovation: its engineering capabilities ranges from the design and development of singular key components of advanced fuelling systems together with state of the art facilities, laboratories for simulation and testing.

The M.T.M s.r.l. CNG Refuelling Division is the company business unit dedicated to automotive CNG refuelling solutions. This unit of the company researches, designs, develops, manufactures, and maintains the broadest range of CNG refuelling stations going from home refuelling to industrial applications.

The heart of a CNG station is the compressor. M.T.M. s.r.l. has collected a deep knowledge in this type of equipment and is now able to design and produce lubricated W-compressors, not-lubricated vertical compressors, boosters, bi-boosters, oil-free yoke compressors, and many more.

Staff members

  • Paolo Abellonio: graduated in Mechanical Engineering at Politecnico di Torino (IT). He started his career in the field of Automation and Robotics then he studied gas injection on internal combustion engines as R&D engineer in M.T.M s.r.l. He developed new strategies for BRC ECUs for several OE manufacturers. Finally, he designed and developed from sketch the BRC compressors and led the M.T.M s.r.l. CNG Refuelling Division Technical Department since the beginning throughout the acquisition of new compressor brands, contributing to the industrialisation of the broadest line of CNG compressors available on the market.
  • Mauro Galletta: graduated in Mechanical Engineering at Politecnico di Torino (IT). He was R&D engineer at Faiveley Transport Air Generation&Treatment Unit Department. Thereafter, he was involved in the development of the BRC compressors project as a part of the R&D team. He has been working on the integration of the BRC FuelMaker and CUBOGAS product line, gathering experience on a large range of compressors for CNG, Fuel Gas, Power generation applications as Project Engineer and Project Manager.
  • Fabrizio Calandri: graduated in Aerospace Engineering at Politecnico di Torino (IT). He was researcher at SITI (private research institute of Politecnico di Torino (IT) and San Paolo bank) working on several energy, security and smart grid EU projects: Picrit, SES and SIAM. Today Calandri has been working for 2 years in the M.T.M. s.r.l. R&D team gaining a great knowledge of CNG compressors. In particular, he has good knowledge in the modeling of complex system and pipeline acoustic simulation.
  • Dr. Rossella M. Ferraro: graduated at the Università di Napoli ‘Federico II’ (IT) In Material Engineering, after that she successfully completed her Master in Material Engineering at the University of Missouri – Rolla (USA), and completed her studies with a Ph.D. in Structural Engineering at the University of Miami (USA). Throughout the course of her carreer, she gained a great experience and credibility in the field of alternative energies. After a year as a Research Assistant at Glasgow Caledonian University (UK), Dr. Ferraro was awarded with a Marie Curie IEF and moved her alternative energies research at the Eindhoven University of Technologies (NL). She decided to enrich her professional knowledge by working into the industry and in 2013 she started working as Project Manager for M.T.M.

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