Projects
Microfluorimetric and biochemical study of the membrane organization of oligodendrocytes when subjected to cholesterol modulation factors Hasselt University
Development and Optimization of Photochemical Reactors for Productivity and Efficiency KU Leuven
Continuous photochemical reactors with conventional homogeneous illumination suffer from a photon efficiency problem, which is inherent to their design: dark zones arise near the reagent-rich inlet whereas the reagent depleted outlet is over-illuminated. Any attempt to mitigate dark zones by decreasing the initial concentration of reagent at the inlet of the reactor will only increase photon losses further downstream. This study reports the ...
Experimental Characterization of Multiphase Transport Processes in Novel Milli-scale Reactors KU Leuven
The research over the past decade on intensified reactors is mainly focused on micro-structured devices for flow chemistry, which have several advantages over conventional reactor systems like safer and controlled production with increased product quality. However, due to lack of link to the production scale, very few parallelized micro-structured devices are operating in the chemical industry. This study aims to close this gap by developing ...
Design and Evaluation of Translucent Structures for Photocatalytic Reactors KU Leuven
Photocatalysis is a technology which opens up new processing windows for organic synthesis or organic transformation reactions. A common application is the photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants in water. Degradation reactions are basically oxidation reactions, where the desired end product is usually carbon dioxide. The intermediate products formed during the mineralization process are potentially interesting to valorize meaning ...
Understanding and Optimization of Heterogeneously Acid Catalyzed Carbon-Carbon Coupling Reactions in Continuous Flow Reactors Ghent University
A multi-scale continuous flow reactor model will be designed and optimised for the challenging Diels-Alder reaction and hydroxymethylation, both zeolite-catalysed. A kinetic model is developed for fundamental understanding of the reaction kinetics. From this kinetic model, a reactor model is developed, by applying conservation laws, for different reactor types. Ultimately, a multi-scale model is obtained for industrial reactor ...
Multi-scale Modeling and Design of chemical Reactions and Reactors (M2dcR2) Ghent University
Modeling from molecular to industrial scale allows to design reactions and reactors in an as rational as possible way. This program aims at the design on such a fundamental basis of fuels from renables, heterogeneous catalysts and nanostructured polymers. Moreover the efficiency of existing processes is maximized.
Thermochemical engineering for enhanced control and recovery of valuable inorganic compounds in high-temperature reactors for unrecyclable wasted materials in the Circular Economy KU Leuven
As consumer goods come to an end-of-life, they cannot always be recycled without potential threats to the environment and/or public health. One of the reasons is the presence of dispersed inorganic additives in materials. Such additives are often essential to provide materials with desired functional properties or an extended lifetime. Hence, they cannot be entirely avoided in newly manufactured consumer goods. As a consequence of the Waste ...
Computational Fluid Dynamics based design of steam cracking reactors using detailed kinetic models Ghent University
Steam cracking of hydrocarbons is the main process for the production of almost all valuable organic base chemicals, especially ethylene and propylene. The goal of this work is to develop a 3D model to accurately simulate both kinetics and flow in steam cracking reactors. This will allow to predict the influence of process conditions and reactor geometry on conversion, product yields and coking behavior, thus greatly enhancing the design of ...