Solar fuels, biomass: there are going to be radical changes in the way we manufacture fuels and chemicals in the future. In the context of a new consortium that includes researchers from Utrecht and Eindhoven, Albert van den Berg and Detlef Lohse’s groups (MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology) will be playing a leading part in this development work. Over the coming decade, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) will be funding this work with €31.9 million from its Zwaartekracht Programme, in which the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) has an advisory role.
“This is an impressive consortium of top-notch research groups in the fields of catalytic chemistry, the physics of fluids, microtechnology and nanotechnology. Albert van den Berg (who heads the BIOS Lab-on-a-chip group here at the university) enthusiastically notes that “It’s great that the University of Twente is so firmly anchored within this new set-up”. The Netherlands Center for Multiscale Catalytic Energy Conversion (MCEC) aims to revolutionize the processes by which fuels and chemical building blocks are produced. To this end, the consortium will be developing new catalytic processes. These will operate at every scale, from the fully developed reactor installation right down to the level of individual atoms.
Turbulence
Detlef Lohse, who heads the Physics of Fluids group, is very keen to get started on this new joint venture: “For us, this will generate some really fascinating fundamental issues that will ultimately have a major impact on society as a whole. The effects in question occur at the level of a single nanobubble in a liquid, or in the field of microfluidics. At the macro scale, my group is doing research into turbulence and multiphase flow. Both of these topics are vitally important in terms of catalysis. Here we have excellent large-scale experimental facilities, such as the Twente water channel. Using this equipment, we can inject bubbles and use advanced optical techniques to track them in space and time, to see how they influence chemical reactions. We will also be developing the numerical methods that underpin such experimental work. The groups from Utrecht, Eindhoven and Twente that make up our consortium are each very different, yet they complement one another very effectively indeed. We have a great need for each other's expertise and equipment.”
A single catalytic particle
Prof. van den Berg expects to develop new lab-on-a-chip systems capable of capturing a single catalytic particle in a microdroplet, moving it along a fluid channel, and monitoring the ways in which this particle reacts with various chemicals. “This will enable us to see how such particles function within single droplets, by examining them ‘in situ’. We could also isolate a single particle inside a nanostructure. Up until now, we have largely used our knowledge of nano-sensing, microfabrication, and nanofabrication for biomedical applications. This programme gives us an opportunity to augment our other line of research, sustainability.” Over the next few years there will be a strong focus on solar fuels, which are generated in chemical reactions that are powered by sunlight. Yet there is still important work to be done in the area of fossil fuel resources, in terms of boosting conversion efficiency. The same applies to new sources, such as biomass. Genuine sustainability requires radical changes to the chemical processes involved, an approach that is at the very heart of this consortium.
In addition to professors Lohse and Van den Berg, the MCEC includes research groups headed by Prof. Bert Weckhuysen and Prof. Alfons van Blaaderen (Utrecht University), and by Prof. Rutger van Santen and Prof. Hans Kuipers (Eindhoven University of Technology). Utrecht University coordinates MCEC.
In the context of the Zwaartekracht Programme, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) will this year be investing a total of €153 million in six consortia, for long-term, large-scale research at the very highest level. Zwaartekracht is the successor to the “Depth Strategy for Research Schools” programme. The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) received 41 applications. The next round will take place in 2016.
