At the end of August, from 24 – 27, a large number of MCEC’s researchers had the opportunity to dive into the world of catalysis during Catalysis Connected. 16 engaging lectures divided over 4 days were given in the beautiful venue Museum Speelklok in Utrecht. There was a lot of interaction between the lecturers and the audience and enough time left for exploring the city. MCEC organised this event as a post-conference of Europacat 2019, together with Viran, Dutch Catalysis Society and ARC CBBC. We are happy to have given our researchers the chance to intensify their knowledge and meet established academics in the field of catalysis.

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27 August 2019

Together with 54 other ERC grant holders, Prof. Detlef Lohse and Prof. Bert Weckhuysen received top-up funding from the European Research Council (ERC) via its Proof of Concept Grants (PoC), to explore the commercial or societal potential of their ERC-funded frontier research results. The awarded projects cover the following topics:

• Prof. Detlef Lohse – Nanoextraction, separation and detection of micropollutants in one single and simple step
• Prof. Bert Weckhuysen – Greenhouse gases to valuable liquid chemicals: High-flux zeolite membrane-based reactor for the efficient conversion of CH4 and CO2

Proof of Concept grants, worth €150,000 each, can be used for example to explore business opportunities, prepare patent applications or verify the practical viability of scientific concepts. The new grants were awarded to researchers working in 15 countries.

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3 May 2019

On April 18, Dr. Aditya Sengar received his PhD degree (cum laude) making him one of the youngest PhDs (at age 25) to do so from TU/e. Dr. Sengar’s work in mesoscale modeling has been able to connect reactions from a chemistry perspective(nanoscale) to a chemical reactor engineers perspective (microscale-macroscale). Here you can read the full text of the PhD thesis and here you’ll find the public summary. Congratulations Dr. Aditya Sengar!

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18 April 2019

On Tuesday April 16, Anne-Eva Nieuwelink and Robin Geitenbeek gave a presentation on luminescence thermometry for visitors of the U-Talent Conference.

U-Talent is a collaboration between Utrecht University, Hogeschool Utrecht and more than 40 partner schools from the Utrecht region. The goal of U-Talent is to strengthen regional science education in secondary education and in the bachelor phase of higher education. To improve the connection between secondary education and higher education the U-talent Conference invites teachers with different backgrounds. During their presentation, Anne-Eva and Robin also gave an insight into the process collaborating with other PhD scientists with different backgrounds.

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16 April 2019

This month, Chemical Engineering Science truly has a lot in store for you. The journal features a special section on ‘Multiscale Energy Conversion from Catalytic Event to Reactor’, in which you’ll find articles from MCEC researchers and other experts who were invited to contribute. 

This special ‘MCEC issue’ is an initiative of Niels Deen (TU/e), who proposed the idea to the MCEC Management Team and the editorial board of Chemical Engineering Science where it was met with much enthusiasm. The result is a 186-page section that features research articles from i.e. Robin Geitenbeek (UU), Jiangtao Lu (TU/e), Beatriz Luna-Murillo (UU), Anne-Eva Nieuwelink (UU),  Aditya Sengar (TU/e), and Evgeny Uslamin (TU/e).

The special section offers a lot of insights on MCEC (related) topics, and showcases the scientific knowledge, talent and multidisciplinary approach MCEC has been developing and nourishing ever since its start. Please take note, new MCEC PhDs and community members, as it is a perfect starting point for reading up on catalysis and multiscale energy conversion.

To everyone involved in this issue: congratulations!

** April 1 2019

The PAC-symposium is an annual chemistry symposium for students organized by students. The symposium is organized by Stichting PAC, which is formed each year by students from four study associations: ACD, CDL, U.S.S. Proton and VCSVU. This years’ 25th programme centers around the theme ‘Back to the Future‘ and is held at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam.

Today, in his lecture, Prof. Bert Weckhuysen will discuss how catalysis is being used to create waste-powered transport and why it is so difficult to convert carbon dioxide into fuels and chemicals.

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7 March 2019