John van der Schaaf appointed Professor at the TU/e department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry

 

The Executive Board of Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) has appointed dr. ir. John van der Schaaf as Full Professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry as of April 2020. Van der Schaaf, who is an Associate Professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry and - as of 2016, a member of the editorial board of NPT Procestechnologie - is now taking a next step in his scientific career. He will occupy the chair ‘Intensified Chemical Reactor.

Chemical Reactor Engineering

The field of Chemical Reactor Engineering is a core discipline in the field of Chemical Engineering in which expertise from chemistry, physics, and mathematics is combined to develop new reactors and chemical reactions and design the most efficient chemical conversion process. These new, intensified chemical reactors combined with advanced construction materials lead to whole new optimization windows for chemical production processes.

Sustainable Process Engineering group

Van der Schaaf’s chair ‘Intensified Chemical Reactors' is embedded in the SPE group (Sustainable Process Engineering) , which is focused on the development of novel processes and reactor concepts based on state-of-the-art equipment designs for a sustainable future. The switch from fossil-based chemical production to renewable energy-based chemical production provides completely new opportunities for the design of production plants of the future. Important aspects include increased robustness and inherent safety of miniplants in operation and the sustainability of the equipment that is used.

Chair ‘Intensified Chemical Reactors'

An important development for the feasibility of miniplants is the emergence of high-shear high-gravity technology such as spinning disc and rotating packed bed technology. Van der Schaaf is considered one of the pioneers of this new direction in chemical reactor engineering. This reactor intensification technology uses rotation to create high-gravity and high-shear conditions that increase interphase mass transfer, intraphase mixing, and fluid-to-wall heat transfer by orders of magnitude. This allows for (i) high production rates in small volume equipment, (ii) use of extremely durable materials, and (iii) multipurpose equipment and processes. The high-gravity high-shear conditions enable the use of extremely compact equipment for the chemical industry. A special application of these intensified chemical reactors is in the field of electrochemical reactors. The storage of renewable energy from wind and solar into hydrogen, metals, and hydrocarbons all involve the conversion of electric energy to chemical energy through electrolysis.

Future research will focus on the performance of high-gravity high-shear equipment as a function of design, operating conditions, and fluid properties. Engineering correlations for mixing intensity and behavior, interphase mass transfer, and production capacity are needed for a proper design and optimization of these reactors and are preferably determined with industrially relevant systems. Fundamental research questions addressed in the work of Van der Schaaf pertain to the influence of high-centrifugal force on turbulence structure, the improvement of models and understanding of mixing of reactants, the impact of structured discs on the flow, and the fluid behavior near auxiliary phases (gas, liquid, or solid) in confined high-shear flow with a high centrifugal force.

Education

Professor Van der Schaaf is a leader in the field of education, and an avid user of new educational techniques such as blended learning and digital assessment. He teaches amongst others 'Chemical Reactor Engineering' and 'Advanced Chemical Reactor Engineering' and intends to introduce a new elective course on the topic of circularity in chemical processes.