There is a doctoral thesis defence coming on 5.2.2021: M.Sc. Irene Coronado, “Catalytic Aqueous-Phase Reforming of Biorefinery Water Fractions.” Thesis is available at: https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/handle/123456789/101983. Defence can be attended in Zoom: https://aalto.zoom.us/j/61275036987, starting 12:00.
The opponent Prof. Henrik Grénman will give an invited talk on the day before, 4.2.2021, starting at 10:00 (same Zoom link): “Chemical process intensification – an interdisciplinary field for developing sustainable chemical engineering”. Short biography of Prof. Grénman below.
Dr. Henrik Grénman, Professor in Chemical Process Intensification. Henrik Grénman studied chemical engineering at Åbo Akademi University (ÅAU), where he joined the research group of Professor Tapio Salmi and Professor Dmitry Murzin and obtained his doctorate in chemical engineering in December 2010. Following postdoctoral research performed e.g. for Finnish Bioeconomy Cluster Oy, and Neste Oyj he obtained the title of docent in 2014 and a tenure track associate professor position in Molecular Process and Materials Technology at ÅAU in 2016 from which he was appointed to his current position in January 2021. Grénman has been a visiting researcher at the Ian Wark Research Centre, University of South Australia in the group Professor Jonas Addai-Mensah and at TU Delft in the Process & Energy Department where he worked with Professor Wiebren de Jong. Professor Grénman’s current research focuses on fundamental and applied aspects of solid-fluid reactions related to the production of sustainable chemicals and fuels, with the focus on process intensification through e.g. catalysis, alternative energy sources, reactor technology, and reaction engineering supported by mathematical modeling. He holds currently several positions of trust in scientific organizations including Chairman of the Finnish Catalyst Society, Vice-chairman of the Johan Gadolin Process Chemistry Centre, and board member of the Technologies for a Sustainable Future research profiling area at ÅAU. He has supervised three doctoral and seventeen masters/bachelor’s thesis and is currently the supervisor of two post-doctoral and five doctoral students. Grénman has published over 50 peer‐reviewed original articles (H-index 15) and he holds one patent.
“Chemical process intensification –
an interdisciplinary field for developing sustainable chemical engineering”
Abstract: My research focuses on chemical process intensification of solid-fluid reactions in sustainable molecular process technology. My research group’s ongoing projects focus on the controlled fractionation of wood and agricultural biomass, the catalytic depolymerization of the obtained carbohydrate and lignin fractions as well as catalytic valorization of the obtained monomers. A part of the valorization is performed with the help of electrocatalysis by combining it with approaches used in traditional chemical catalysis and by applying intensified reaction conditions in a novel way. Moreover, obtaining bio-based hydrogen from bio-refinery side streams aims at achieving total efficient utilization of the biomass. Besides using biomass for renewable value-added products, our research has also concentrated on the direct utilization of carbon dioxide for producing renewable methane for obtaining increased viability in modern post-fossil large-scale energy storage. The process can be considerably intensified by utilizing sorption enhancement to remove water directly from the reactive surface for shifting equilibrium. These projects combine natural materials chemistry, alimentary science, electrochemistry, detailed organic chemistry and analysis, catalysis and reaction engineering, as well as reactor and process development. The common goal in these projects is the systematic strive for process intensification by combining classical and new methods in novel ways.
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update 2.2.2021: abstract added (with permission of the author)
