We gladly announce our participation in the recently granted Collaborative Research Center "Smart Reactors"! Prof. Irina Smirnova will be Vice-Spokesperson of the CRC and is responsible for two of the twenty projects (A01 & B01). More information about the CRC “Smart Reactors” can be found here.

The long-term research goal of the twelve-year CRC concept is to create the scientific basis for a new generation of autonomous reactors for chemical, biochemical and mechanical transformation processes that can operate independently through self-adaptation and convert changing renewable raw materials into valuable products in the most sustainable way considering the fluctuations of the feed quality.

The first project TVT is involved in A01 in close collaboration with our partners from University of Hamburg: Stimuli-responsive polymers for self-regulating reactors: From basic phenomena to reactor design. This project focuses on the development of stimuli-responsive materials and their integration in tailored SMART 3D-printed chemical reactors (at lab and, prospectively, pilot-scale) with special focus on inherent control and actuation.

Our second project is in close collaboration with our Mercator fellow Prof. Walter Chapman and our Junior-Prof. Pavel Gurikov (B01): Materials for SMART reactors: Thermodynamic and kinetic modelling of responsive materials. This project focuses on the development of molecular thermodynamic and kinetic models describing the behavior of stimuli-responsive materials to provide comprehensive insights for the experimental studies in the CRC and set the groundwork for establishing a digital twin simulator of chemical and biochemical processes.