On 9th of November at 3:30 p.m., Parnpailin Jeansathawong will present the results of her Master Thesis with the title: "Optimization of Hybrid Biopolymer Aerogels for Flame Retardant Applications". The presentation will be held via zoom. 

The "Elbe-NH Konsortium", together with CBBS, invites to the presentation of the results for the afternoon of November 26. A focus is on the application orientation of the process. Attendance is limited to 100 participants and there is no participation fee. Please register at the CBBS website: https://www.biobasedsolutions.de/events/

More information about the workshop can be found here and a program overview can be found here.

We are glad to announce that our former graduate Dr. Tamara Athamneh recently joined the Institute of Nanotechnology at the Jordan University of Science and Technology as Assistant Professor. The Institute of Nanotechnology is a newly established institute and the first institute in Jordan in the field of technical and descriptive research. It constitutes an important breakthrough on the path of development and activation of scientific research in the middle east and Jordan.

On October 21st, the next meeting of the Aerogel Cluster "Contribution of Aerogels towards improving energy efficiency in the industry" will take place at the Hamburg University of Technology. The current developments in the corona pandemic allow us to meet in person again after nearly two years of digital meetings.

In the Aerogel Cluster many research project, that are financed by the "Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie (BMWi)", joined forces. Together they want to promote the wide application of aerogels in the industry.

We are looking forward to welcome you to the Aerogel Cluster meeting at the TUHH on October 21st!

We proudly inform that our co-worker Jun.-Prof. Dr. Pavel Gurikov in co-authorship with Prof. Lorenz Ratke (DLR) has written a book entitled "Chemistry and Physics of Aerogels: Synthesis, Processing, and Properties". The book presents the basics of aerogel synthesis and gelation to open porous nanostructures, and the processing of wet gels like ambient and supercritical drying leading to aerogels. The book describes essential properties of aerogels, measurement techniques and theoretical models used to analyse relations to aerogel's nanostructure. Linking the fundamentals and with practical applications, we hope it will be a useful toolkit for advanced undergraduates, and graduate students doing research in material and polymer science, physical chemistry, and chemical and environmental engineering. 

On 30th of September at 10 a.m., Aaron Pfleger will present the results of his Bachelor Thesis with the title: "Charakterisierung von Wechselwirkungen zwischen Biopolymer-Aerogelen und aromatischen Verbindungen mittels überkritischer Fluidchromatographie". The presentation will be held via zoom. 

On 6th of September at 2 p.m., Chioma Scholastica Okonkwo will present the results of her Project Thesis with the title: "Green extraction of proteins from agro-food industrial by-products: dates seeds, olive Pomace and coffee silverskins". The presentation will be held via zoom. 

Aerogels can be applied for thermal insulation in cases where common insulation materials fail. Irina Smirnova coordinates the Aerogel-Cluster that is funded by the "Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie (BMWi)". In this interview she explains, why scientific exchange is immensely important, why aerogels possess an extremely large inner surface area and where they can be energy-efficiently used in the industry. 

The full interview with Irina Smirnova can be found here.

On 30th of August at 10:30 a.m., Maria Staneva will present the results of her Bachelor Thesis with the title: "Imaging of tracer particles using X-Ray Microtomography to study the uniformity of gel shrinkage during solvent exchange". The presentation will be held via zoom. 

On 26th of August at 10 a.m., Nico Briewig will present the results of his Bachelor Thesis with the title: "Untersuchung von nachhaltigen Lösungsmittelalternativen für die Biokatalyse durch Alkoholdehydrogenase - eine molekulardynamische Studie". The presentation will be held via zoom. 

Mushlabs develops Mycelium-based processes and products for sustainable and healthy food products. In the joint project “MyScale” funded by BMWi, the TUHH-TVT tailors their process for this new application and scales it to production relevant equipment. Photo © Eva Härberle

On 18th of June at 9:30 a.m., Jan Neumann will present the results of his Bachelor Thesis with the title: "Untersuchung der Quell- und Schrumpfkinetik responsiver Hydrogele am Beispiel von Poly(N-isopropylacrylamid)". The presentation will be held via zoom. 

On 17th of June at 9:00 a.m., Oscar Uribe will present the results of his project thesis with the title: "Influence of the volumetric transition of 3D printed PNIPPAm structures on the mass transfer performance in an L-L Extraction System". The presentation will be held via zoom. 

On 1st of June at 15:00, Jonathan Garlipp will present the results of his project thesis with the title: "Implementation and extension of the COSMO-vac model for the calculation of supercritical solubilities". The presentation will be held via zoom. 

On 7th of June at 15:00, Maria Tibaquira Martinez will present the results of her master's thesis with the title: "Comparative investigation of the impact of heterologously expressed hydrophobin on the characteristics of hybrid protein-pectin aerogels". The presentation will be held via zoom. 

On 27th of May at 10:00, Tobias Klatt will present the results of his bachelor's thesis with the title: "Beitrag zur (Hochdruck-)Anwendung einer Polymermembran". The presentation will be held via zoom.

The paper "Process design of a continuous biotransformation with in situ product removal by cloud point extraction" submitted by Oliver Fellechner and  Prof. Irina Smirnova to the Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering has been selected as "Editor's Choice" in the current issue of the journal. Congratulations!

On 16th of April at 10:00, Kathrin Eckert will present the results of her master's thesis with the title: "Thermodynamische Modellierung des Quellverhaltens von stimuli-responsiven Gelen in Mehrkomponentensystemen mit PC-SAFT". The presentation will be held via zoom. 

On 27th April at 11:00, William Borden will present the results of his master's thesis with the title: "UV-VIS Spectroscopic Investigations on the Release Kinetics of Small Molecules from Mesoporous Structures". The presentation will be held via zoom.

On 5th May at 14:00, Benjamin Brenke will present the results of his bachelor's thesis with the title: "Bewertung eines zweistufigen Dampf-Autohydrolyse Aufschlusses mit Weizenstroh in einer Bioraffinerie-Kaskade im Pilot-Maßstab". The presentation will be held via zoom.

On 29th March at 9:00, Ryan Rautenbach will present the results of his bachelor thesis with the title: "Untersuchungen der Prozessparameter hinsichtlich der makroskopischen Eigenschaften von Alginatpartikeln im JetCutting-Prozess". The presentation will be held via zoom.

On 26th March at 11:00, Cecilia Castedo Hernández will present the results of her master thesis with the title: "A water-free route to porous materials via cryoextraction and supercritical drying". The presentation will be held via zoom.

On 19th March at 9:30, Timo Lehmann will present the results of his bachelor's thesis with the title: "In-situ-Messung der CO2-Einlösung in Biopolymerlösungen zur Charakterisierung der CO2-induzierten Gelierung". The presentation will be held via zoom.

On 29th March at 10:00, Ryan Rautenbach will present the results of his bachelor's thesis with the title: "Untersuchungen der Prozessparameter hinsichtlich der makroskopischen Eigenschaften von Alginatpartikeln im JetCutting-Prozess". The presentation will be held via zoom.

On 18th March at 13:30, Aditya Kumar will present the results of his project thesis with the title: "Autohydrolysis of Wheat Straw at low pH - Investigation of Reaction Kinetics". The presentation will be held via zoom.

On 25th February at 11:30, Kamal Ouro Koura will present the results of his bachelor's thesis with the title: "Kaltalkalische Synthese proteinbasierter Aerogele: Untersuchungen von Einflüssen im Sol-Gel-Prozess". The presentation will be held via zoom.

On 12th February at 9:00, Alina Bornkeßel will present the results of her master's thesis with the title: "Wechelwirkungen von kleinen und großen biologischen Molekülen mit funktionalisierten Biopolymer-Aerogelen untersucht durch überkritische Fluidchromatographie". The presentation will be held via zoom.

On 8th February at 15:00, Madlen Rogel will present the results of her bachelor's thesis with the title: "Beitrag zur Vollverwertung von Tabakresten mit Hochdruckverfahren". The presentation will be held in German and it will take place over zoom.

On 5th February at 14:30, Daniel Wenser will present the results of his bachelor's thesis with the title: "Extension of the COSMO-RS-ES Model for temperature depedency in aqueous electrolytes based on data from the Joint Expert Speciation System". The presentation will be held in German and it will take place over zoom.

Das LignoPure-Team entwickelt einzigartige Technologie zum Ersatz von Kunststoffen durch die Nutzung von Reststoffen der Zellstoff- und Bioethanol-Industrie. Das Team schließt mit HTGF, IFH und Tanovis AG erfolgreich seine Seed-Finanzierungsrunde ab. Kernziel ist die Beschleunigung des Markteintritts und die Skalierung der eigenen Technologie für die Umwandlung von Lignin (einem Nebenprodukt der Zellstoffindustrie und Bioraffinerien) in maßgeschneiderte Partikel für Life-Science-Anwendungen. Lignin ist nach Cellulose das weltweit zweithäufigste natürliche Polymer, wird jedoch bisher kaum materiell genutzt und größtenteils zur Energieerzeugung verbrannt.

Mit Hilfe der Investition wird das Startup seine Technologie für die Herstellung von 100% natürlichen, ultrafeinen, hochwertigen LignoBase® Ligninpartikeln implementieren. LignoBase wird hauptsächlich als funktioneller Bestandteil für Kosmetika angeboten werden und soll schädliche Materialien auf fossiler Basis ersetzen. Erstmals wird LignoPure dadurch in der Lage sein, hochwertiges Lignin für Kosmetika im Tonnenmaßstab zu liefern.

LignoPure positioniert sich dabei durch seinen neuen Blickwinkel auf ligninbasierte Produkte und Anwendungen als Game Changer. Das Startup bietet maßgeschneiderte Ligninpulver entsprechend der gewünschten Anwendung und bringt die natürlichen Eigenschaften und Funktionalitäten des Lignin gezielt in die Endprodukte des Kunden ein.

Für LignoPure ist es zudem essentiell, über eine reine Lieferung von Ligninpulvern hinaus seine Kunden effektiv bei der Einführung eigener innovativer, nachhaltiger und ligninbasierter Produkte zu unterstützen – durch maßgeschneiderte Lösungen und Entwicklungsdienstleistungen in den Bereichen Life Sciences und neue Materialien.

Mehr Informationen zur Finanzierung von LignoPure können hier gefunden werden.

“Diese erste Finanzierungsrunde ist ein Eckpfeiler für das Erreichen unserer nächsten Meilensteine und hilft uns enorm, unseren Markteintritt zu beschleunigen und uns als Pioniere bei der Verwendung von Lignin in Produkten unseres täglichen Gebrauchs zu positionieren. Dieser wichtige Schritt ist das Ergebnis harter Arbeit sowie des großartigen Engagements unseres Teams. Und es bringt uns unserem Traum von einer grüneren Wirtschaft ein Stück näher.”

- Joana Gil, Gründerin und CEO LignoPure GmbH

“Mit dieser großartigen Allianz haben wir nicht nur die Möglichkeit, die von uns ersehnte Produktionsanlage zu implementieren, sondern auch unseren Kundenstamm und unser Netzwerk strategisch zu erweitern sowie ein zuverlässiges Zulieferer-Netzwerk aufzubauen. Wir sehen großes Potenzial in den technologischen und kommerziellen Synergien, die uns diese Investition bietet”

- Wienke Reynolds, Gründerin und CTO LignoPure GmbH

On 21th January at 9:30, Momme Adami will present the results of his master's thesis with the title: "Analysis and evaluation of solvent fractionation of edible oils and fats". The presentation will take place over zoom.

On December 7 and 8 Prof. Pavel Gurikov held a series lectures on phase equilibria in supercritical systems for Russian Master and PhD students. The lectures were organized by the Physical Chemistry Department of Lomonosov State University. More information can be found here:

http://www.chem.msu.ru/rus/events/2020-11-23-superfluids/

On 14th December at 11:00, Jonas Schnurr will present the results of his bachelor's thesis with the title: "Die Untersuchung der Einflussfaktoren auf die enzymatische Hydroylse von lignocellulosehaltiger Biomasse". The presentation will be held in German and it will take place over zoom.

We are happy to announce that a new project between University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf, UKE) and TUHH is granted. The project is entitled Hydrogels and aerogels with tunable stiffness for endothelial cell culture and will be carried out by the research groups of Dr. Maike Frye (UKE) and Prof. Pavel Gurikov (TUHH). The overall aim of this project is to develop a new class of biopolymer-based hydrogel matrices with controllable stiffness and thereby to closely mimic biological conditions for the growth of endothelial cells. Photo: © Dr. Maike Frye (UKE)

Dear students, Despite the difficult teaching conditions and many online lectures/exercises in the previous and current semester due to the current Covid-19 pandemic, we were able to arrange the practical course "Thermische Grundoperationen" to be held in person, taking into account all necessary hygiene requirements. For most students, this is not only a pleasant change in the currently dreary everyday life of their studies, but also an opportunity to form learning groups and to share experiences. Our department wishes all interns a healthy start into the upcoming internships and is looking forward to a successful teamwork.

M. Sc. Isabella Jung and Dr. Baldur Schroeter successfully applied with their project idea entitled “Strategy development for coating of open-porous materials with low density using ionized plasma” for the funding of a TUHH-intern I³-Junior project. The funding will be used in order to combine expertises in the fields of plasma-technology and aerogels to establish plasma-coating as versatile post-modification step for aerogels substrates. The activation and modification of various substrates like biomass and polymers-derived materials will be evaluated, to open up new fields of research at the interface of different scientific disciplines at TUHH.

Auf Grund der Corona-Pandemie reiste die Postdoc-Stipendiatin der Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung, Frau Dr. Mouna Kehili, diesen Sommer nicht nach Tunesien und konnte ihre Hochzeit nicht mit der ganzen Familie feiern. Aber glücklicherweise konnte ihr Mann, Ahmed Friji, nach Hamburg kommen und zusammen mit den Arbeitskollegen des TVT-Instituts ein sehr schönes kleines Fest feiern. Das Brautpaar bedankt sich bei Prof. Smirnova und die TVT-Gruppe für ihre Freundlichkeit, wertvollen Geschenke und Glückwünsche. Vielen Dank auch an die Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung für die sehr freundliche Unterstützung in diesen schwierigen Zeiten.

Am 26. August wurde Prof. Dr.-Ing. Irina Smirnova vom Akademischen Senat auf Vorschlag des amtierenden TU-Präsidenten Ed Brinksma offiziell für das Amt der Vizepräsidentin für Forschung der Technischen Universität Hamburg gewählt. Sie ist damit die erste Frau in der TU-Geschichte in diesem Amt und gemeinsam mit der Vizepräsidentin Lehre, Kerstin Kuchta, die zweite Frau an der Spitze der TU-Leitung. Die Amtszeit der Leiterin des Instituts für Thermische Verfahrenstechnik beginnt am 1. September und beträgt drei Jahre. Sie folgt auf Professor Andreas Timm-Giel, der das Amt knapp sechs Jahre innehatte.

TU-Präsident Ed Brinksma: “Ich freue mich sehr, dass Irina Smirnova die Wahl annimmt. Sie wird zusätzliche innovative Akzente in der Forschung setzen und das Wachstum der TU Hamburg weiter vorantreiben. Ich danke an dieser Stelle auch dem scheidenden Vizepräsidenten Andreas Timm-Giel für sein großes Engagement, das er an der TU weiterhin fortführen wird.“ Andreas Timm-Giel ist künftig geschäftsführender Präsident an der TU Hamburg, bis die Findungskommission die Nachfolge für den scheidenden Präsidenten Ed Brinksma bestimmt hat.

Irina Smirnova trägt nun die strategische Verantwortung im Präsidium für den Bereich Forschung und freut sich auf ihre kommende Amtszeit: „Mein Ziel ist es an der TU Hamburg eine Atmosphäre zu stärken, in der erfolgreiche Innovationen und Forschungsideen als Antwort auf die Herausforderungen unserer Zeit entstehen. Dafür braucht es eine kreative Arbeitsumgebung und genügend Raum für Forschung in den einzelnen Instituten und Arbeitsgruppen“, sagt Irina Smirnova. „Die exzellente, interdisziplinäre Zusammenarbeit auf dem Campus sowie mit regionalen und internationalen Forschungseinrichtungen und Industriepartnern, insbesondere auf der EU Ebene, soll gezielt unterstützt werden. Die Graduiertenakademie soll weiterhin die überfachliche Qualifizierung unserer Doktorandinnen und Doktoranden fördern“.

Seit 2008 ist Irina Smirnova Professorin und Leiterin des Instituts für Thermische Verfahrenstechnik an der TU Hamburg. Ihre Forschungsschwerpunkte liegen in den Bereichen Aerogele, Hochdrucktechnik, Bioraffinerie, innovative Trenntechnologien sowie der Entwicklung molekularer thermodynamischer Methoden. Zuvor war die Ingenieurin Gastwissenschaftlerin an der Sogang Universität in Südkorea und arbeitete bis 2008 als Gruppenleiterin und Habilitandin am Institut für Thermodynamik und Thermische Verfahrenstechnik der Technischen Universität Berlin und am Institut für Thermische Verfahrenstechnik an der Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. Smirnova studierte Physikalische Chemie an der Staatlichen Universität St. Petersburg und promovierte 2002 an der Technischen Universität Berlin zur Synthese und Anwendung von Aerogelen in der Verfahrenstechnik. Ihre Habilitation erfolgte im 2008 an der Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. In ihrer wissenschaftlichen Laufbahn wurde sie auch mit dem Hochschullehrer-Nachwuchspreis der DECHEMA und mit dem Hamburger Lehrpreis ausgezeichnet.

Our TVT family has grown with a new doctor! On August 7th 2020, Simon Müller has successfully defended his doctoral thesis "Application and Refinement of COSMO-RS-ES for calculating phase equilibria of electrolyte systems at high concentrations in mixed and non-aqueous solvents" online via Zoom. 

Congratulations, Dr. Müller!

Our TVT family has grown with a new doctor! On July 24th 2020, Tamara Athamneh has successfully defended her doctoral thesis "Preparation and evaluation of nanoporous aerogel particles based on biopolymers for pharmaceutical applications". 

Congratulations, Dr. Athamneh!

Due to the current situation, we have to postpone our 5th INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR ON AEROGELS as well as the Summer School in Cologne to September 2021.

The Conceptual Engineering Academy of the BASF will take place on the 29th and 30th October. Due to the corona pandemic the workshop will be held online this year. Within this workshop you will have the opportunity to solve an industrial relevant problem from the everyday life of a process engineer.

If you are a master student and interested in conceptual process design, you can register for the course by writing an email to jan.bittner@tuhh.de by September 18, 2020.

In July the registration period for the bachelor programmes at the Hamburg University of Technology will start. Studying process engineering or bio process engineering can enable your generation to produce resource- and climate-friendly products.

For more information about teaching and research of the Dean of Studies process engineering at the TUHH, click on the following link! 

Our TVT family has grown with a new doctor! On June 12th 2020, Ilka Selmer has successfully defended her doctoral thesis "Prozessoptimierung der überkritischen Trocknung von Proteinaerogelen und deren Anwendung im Lebensmittelbereich" online via Zoom, which was our first online PhD defense. 

Congratulations, Dr. Selmer!

Our colleague and co-founder of LignoPure, Joana Gil, will give a speech on Thursday 30. April at 10:00 at the Online-Event "Keep calm and let's get sustainable" together with Prof. Kerstin Kuchta and Dr. Lothar Behlau. They will discuss interesting sustainability topics in the subsequent eleven interactive BarCamp sessions. You would be also able to meet companies, organizations, AGs and to introduce your own projects!

So far, more than 100 participants have registered to the event, would you also like to attend? Click on the following link! 

Due to the current situation, we have to postpone our 5th INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR ON AEROGELS as well as the Summer School in Cologne to September 2021.

Is it possible to reuse waste? Our guest Dr. Mouna Kehili wants to fully utilize industrial agricultural and food waste and extract bio-based substances from it that are used in the cosmetics, food and pharmaceutical industries. She received an Alexander von Humboldt scholarship to join our research group for one year. We are pleased to have her in our team! 

Click on the following link if you are interested in knowing more about her work!

Our TVT family has grown with a new doctor! On February 14th 2020, Linda Ehlermann has successfully defended her doctoral thesis "Aeration of solidifying lipid matrices". 

Congratulations, Dr. Ehlermann!

We would like to invite you all to the lecture of our guest Dr. Satoru Takeshita entitled:

Development of transparent chitosan aerogel and some interesting findings on supercritical drying

Dr. Takeshita works at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Japan. He is expert in chitosan aerogels and photoluminescent materials.

The lecture will take place on Thursday, 13.02. at 09:30 in the meeting room O2.083.

Our TVT family has grown with a new doctor! On January 17th 2020, Denitsa Yordanova has successfully defended her doctoral thesis "Molecular modeling of solute partitioning in micellar systems". 

Congratulations, Dr. Yordanova!

Our TVT family has grown with a new doctor! On November 22th 2019, Ralena Racheva has successfully defended her doctoral thesis "Development of a surfactant-based in situ extraction from authentic feedstocks". 

Congratulations, Dr. Racheva!

Are you thinking about studying one semester abroad?

On 30.10. From 14:00 to 15:30 the Dean's offices B and V will jointly organize an information session on studying abroad for TU students in room A 1.15 1/2. More about the information events and the application deadlines can be found here. Don't miss the chance!

This fantastic video by Bompas & Parr tells you the story about aerogels and our institute:

Video: Taste the Sky: The World’s Lightest Dessert

Enjoy it! 

We are proud to announce that our bilateral German-Austrian research project POLIGOM - porous lignous organic materials - was granted! We are thankful to IraSME, the German AiF-ZIM as well as the Austrian FFG for the funding. The project involves 3 research institutions, 3 SMEs as well as 2 large companies and is planned for two years, starting in october 2019. For the first time, this project aims to develop innovative, lignin-based and highly porous materials for construction, packaging and acoustics tailored to the needs of the market.

On 21-23 August 2019 the International Youth Summer School “Aerogels: from laboratory to industry” will take place in Moscow, Russia, for the second time. The Summer School will focus on various aerogels applications, modeling, commercialization and transfer to industry. Among the participants of the first Summer School in 2017 were representatives from different countries – Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Serbia, France, India, Turkey, Norway. MUCTR is glad to continue this practice, which contributes to the long-term development of relations in the framework of international cooperation, the unification of representatives of the Russian and foreign aerogel community.

Are you looking for a topic for your bachelor or master thesis? Click on the following link to have a look at the topics that are still available at our institute! Sure you will find all of them very interesting!

Are you planning to go on Erasmus but you do not know where to get the information from? Click on the following Link to have an overview about it, which documents you may need and to know the people you need to contact in case you have questions!

We are very happy to announce that Prof. Walter Chapman will visit our institute during the whole month of June and he will give a lecture at the VT-Kolloquium on 6th June at 17:00. He is the pioner of the Statistical Associating Fluid Theory (SAFT), which is a powerful equation of state model for thermodynamic property and phase equilibria calculations for fluid mixtures. SAFT has been especially successful in some engineering applications for which other classical EoSs failed. PC-SAFT is an Equation of State based on this theory.

Brief biography of Prof. Chapman:

Professor Walter G. Chapman is the William W. Akers Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, the Director of the Energy and Environmental Systems Institute and Associate Dean for Energy Research at Rice University. Among his recognitions are multiple teaching awards and an Outstanding Young Alumni Award from Clemson University where he received his B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering in 1983. He was awarded his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University in 1988. After spending two years as a Research Engineer with Shell Development Company, he joined the Rice faculty in 1990. In 2011, Dr. Chapman received the George R. Brown School of Engineering Award for Superior Teaching. Professor Chapman's research into properties and interfacial structure of complex fluids has applications in the energy and high performance materials industries.

Research summary:

Dr. Chapman’s research group uses tools such as molecular simulation, computer visualization, statistical mechanics, and NMR to discover how material properties and structure depend on molecular forces. Professor Chapman’s present research program focuses polymer solutions and blends, associating fluids, confined fluids, natural gas hydrates and asphaltenes.

You can find more information about his research group at: RICE university - Walter Chapman 

Our TVT family has grown with a new doctor! On May 23rd 2019, Wienke Reynolds has successfully defended her doctoral thesis "Modeling and scale-up of hydrothermal pretreatment in compressible lignocellulosic biomass fixed-beds with changing properties".

Congratulations, Dr. Reynolds!

On 7th May at 11:00, Marianne Nassar will present the results of her master's thesis with the title: "Consistent Temperature-dependent Mean Ionic Activity Coefficients for Aqueous Systems: Evaluation and Refinement with COSMO-RS-ES". The presentation will be held in English and it will take place in room 283. Everyone is invited!

On 26th April at 10:00, Prakhar Pouranick will present the results of his master's thesis with the title: "Investigation of different thin film composite membranes for the separation of climate-active components from gas mixtures". The presentation will be held in English and it will take place in room 283. Everyone is invited!

On 25th April at 17:15, M.Sc. Tamara Athamneh and M.Sc. Sheila Ruiz Barbero will present their doctoral theses in the FSP seminar "Integrated Biotechnology and Process Engineering" on the following topics:

- Tamara Athamneh: Alginate and hybrid alginate-hyaluronic acid aerogel microspheres as potential carrier for pulmonary drug delivery

- Sheila Ruiz Barbero: Solubility and sorption kinetics in complex media.

The presentations will take place in building A room 1.19.1. Everyone is invited!

On 23rd April at 9:30, Daniel Delgado will present the results of his master's thesis with the title: "Two step Liquid Hot Water Hydrolysis of Wheat Straw in a Lignin Biorefinery Cascade". The presentation will be held in English and it will take place in room 283. Everyone is invited!

Our TVT family has grown with a new doctor! On April 5th 2019, Raman Subrahmanyam has successfully defended his doctoral thesis "Evaluation of CO2 driven processes for the production of biopolymeric mesoporous networks".

Congratulations, Dr. Subrahmanyam!

On 4th April at 13:00, Anja Hajnal will present the results of her master's thesis with the title: "Analysis of the supercritical drying kinetics for the production of aerogels". The presentation will be held in English and it will take place in room 283. Everyone is invited!

Tamara Athamneh has won the award for the best oral presentation at the Pharmacy Fourth International Conference at Applied Science Private University on 6-7th January 2019 for her oral presentation "Preparation and Characterization of Alginate- Hyaluronic Acid Nanoporous Microspheres as Potential Carrier for Pulmonary Drug Delivery Using Supercritical Fluid Technology". Congratulations! 

As the year is coming to an end, we would like to take this opportunity to give you a short overview about our achivements and updates of 2018.

During the last year, four new staff members have been joined our research group: Tim Kuczynski, Michał Blatkiewicz, Andres Gonzalez de Castilla, and Baldur Schröter. Moreover, we had many visitors from all over the world:

• Isaac Cuadra Mendoza (University of Madrid, Spain, 6 months)
• Clara López Iglesias (University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain, 3 months)
• DSc. Juliane Viganó (University of Campinas, Brazil, 6 months)
• Professor Patrina Paraskevopoulou (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, 3 months)
• Dr. Ebrahim Abouzari-Loft (Center for Hydrogen Economy, University Teknologi Malaysia, 1 month)
• Students from Bulgaria

Apart from this,12 master theses and 15 project and bachelor theses have been successfully defended, congratulations to everyone! Especially, we would like to congratulate our recent Dr. Thomas Gerlach. We wish you the best in the future!

Many awards were achieved within this year:

• Founding of "Gerd Brunner Lecture"
• Alberto Bueno: Jerry King Poster Prize - 12th International Symposium on Supercritical Fluids
• Miaotian Sun: Best Poster Award "4th International Seminar on Aerogels"
• Sheila Ruiz Barbero: "Poster Award - 6th Workshop of FSP" Integrated Biotechnology and Process Engineering "
• Joana Gil and Wienke Reynolds: "Science4Life award"
• Dr. René Heils: VAA Excellence Award 2018
• Humboldt Research Award for Prof. Walter Chapman

As this is not enough, we would also like to mention that:

• 21 new publications have been published this year in the group of Prof. Smirnova
• 3 patents filed (two with BASF and one from the biorefinery group)
• Working in Editorial Boards of Journals: Jun.Prof. Dr. Pavel Gurikov in "Hydrogels" and "Gels", and Prof. Irina Smirnova in "Annual Reviews in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering", "Journal of Supercritical Fluids" and "Industrial and Chemistry Research"
• The 4th International Seminar on Aerogels took place in our University between 24th-26th September
• Foundation of Aerogelex and BioMP
• LignoPure initiative (+NDR Beitrag)
• Regular meetings of all 3 clusters (biorefinery 2021, Nanohybrids, aerogels for energy efficiency)

With all these good news, we wish everyone a Merry Christmas and all the best for the coming 2019!

On 17th January, Prof. Pfennig will visit our institute and he will give a presentation at 17:00 in the VT-Kolloqium. Have a look at the abstract if you are interested in!

The Team of LignoPure, Joana Gil and Wienke Reynolds, has won the Science4Life award for one of the best business ideas. For more information, visit the website of Science4Life and/or LignoPure. Congratulation!

The DFG supports the interdisciplinary Research Training Group "Processes in Natural and Technical Particle Fluid Systems (PintPFS)" of the Technical University of Hamburg (TUHH) and is funding 15 graduate programs nationwide from April 2019. We are happy to be part of this GRK!

Click on the following link to read more about it!

Our coworkers and founders or "LignoPure", Wienke Reynolds and Joana Gil, have presented their work with lignin in the channel from Hamburg "NRD" about the production and use of lignin to avoid mineral oil. This is only a small part of the research of the biorefinery group. Click on the following link to see their contribution. 

Sheila Ruiz Barbero has won the award for the third best poster at the 6th Workshop of FSP "Integrated Biotechnology and Process Engineering" on 25th October 2018 for her poster "Formation and stability of foams in complex media". Congratulations!

Our paper Aerogel production: Current status, research directions, and future opportunities, written by Prof. Smirnova and Jun.Prof. Gurikov, has become one of the most downloaded papers of the Journal of Supercritical Fluids. Congratulations!

On 12th November at 15:00, Diana Liedtke will present the results of her master's thesis with the title: "Production of aerogel particles for food application: Geletion process and post functionalication". The presentation will take place in room 283. Everyone is invited!

On 9th November at 10:30, Julia Karnetzke will present the results of her master's thesis with the title: "Kombination von Stimuli-Responsiven Hydrogelen und 3D-Druck zur Entwicklung intelligenter Reaktoren". The presentation will take place in room 283. Everyone is invited!

On 18th October at 14:00, Natalie Seide will present the results of her master's thesis with the title: "Untersuchung von Verfahren zur Aufbereitung eines Reaktionsproduktes nach der extraktiven Biokatalyse". The presentation will take place in room 283. Everyone is invited!

The 4th International Seminar on Aerogels was celebrated from 24th-26th September in our University. Click on the following links to know more about the event and some of the talks given in the conference.

- Press release “International researchers meet in Hamburg to discuss aerogels, the materials of the future

- Aerogels as high-performance insulation materials by BASF

- Optimizing nanomaterials-based electrodes for electrochemical energy storage and conversion

- Cellulose aerogels - Shaping and properties for tailored application

On 11th October at 9:30, Alina Bornkeßel will present the results of her bachelor's thesis with the title: "Untersuchung der Einflussparameter der Jet-Cutting Methode auf die Eigenschaften von Pektingelpartikeln zur Aerogelherstellung". The presentation will take place in room 283. Everyone is invited!

On 9th October at 9:00, Yoana Todorova will present the results of her master's thesis with the title: "A Study on Impregnation of Rosmarinic Acid on Porous Materials". The presentation will be held in English and it will take place in room 283. Everyone is invited!

The NanoHybrids Consortium and their research colleagues beyond the project have a strong interest to enhance and distribute the knowledge on their fascinating research area much wider. Have a look at following link to know more about their research!

On 27th September at 8:30, Amelie Kenkel will present the results of her master's thesis with the title: "Adaptation of Polysaccharide Gelation in Emulsions for Production of Cellulose Aerogel Microparticles". The presentation will be held in English and it will take place in room 283. Everyone is invited!

The 4th International Seminar on Aerogels will take place in Hamburg on 24-26. September 2018 and it is fast approaching. Click on the video from a previous aerogel conference organized in Hamburg in 2014 if you want to have an idea about it!

More info at Seminar Aerogels 2018

On 21th August at 9:30, Daudi Masinde will present the results of his project work with the title: "Post Treatment Of Wheat Straw And Softwood Biomass From Liquid Hot Water Pretreatment Towards Enhanced Lignin Extraction". The presentation will take place in room 283 and will be held in English. Everyone is invited!

Have a look at the following report regarding the Aspen workshop that BASF organized in collaboration with our institute and the institute of Prof. Fieg! More info at BASF Conceptual Engineering Academy 

On 16th July at 11:00, Leon Stellmacher will present the results of his bachelor's thesis with the title: "Untersuchung des Einflusses von Natriumsalzen auf die Cloud Point Temperatur nichtionischer Tenside". The presentation will take place in room 283. Everyone is invited!

On 12th July at 9:30, Marianne Nassar will present the results of her project work with the title: "Preliminary Studies for the Implementation of Aqueous Micellar Two-Phase Systems in a Mixer Settler Apparatus". The presentation will take place in room 283 and will be held in English. Everyone is invited!

On 28th June at 9:30, Carla Martin will present the results of her master's thesis with the title: "Characterization of functionalized silica particles using Linear Solvation Energy Relationships". The presentation will be held in English and it will take place in room 283. Everyone is invited!

If you are interested in working with Aspen, join us to our 2-days workshop that BASF organizes in collaboration with our Institute and the Institute of Process engineering, headed by Prof. Fieg. It will take place on the 9 and 10th of August. For more information, click on the following link: BASF Conceptual Engineering Academy 

We would like to express our gratitude to everyone who participated at our alumni-meeting 2018. From our point of view, it is an honour to meet our previous coworkers that have helped during many years to the progress of this institute. The meeting was a great success with laboratory tours, interesting talks and BBQ-dinner at Gasthaus zum Kiekeberg. See you at the next alumni-meeting. Your institute V8!

On 5th June at 9:30, Mohammad "Ali" Madjidian will present the results of his bachelor's thesis with the title: "Verbesserung der Kompatibilität von Lignin mit Polypropylen durch chemische Modifikation". The presentation will take place in room 283. Everyone is invited!

On 14th May at 14:00, Anja Hajnal will present the results of her project work with the title: "Solvent extraction kinetics for the production of aerogels during the pressurization step". The presentation will take place in room 283. Everyone is invited!

On 11th May at 9:30, Deeptanshu Sivaraman will present the results of his master's thesis with the title: "Adsorptive precipitation of pharmaceuticals in aerogels of various surface chemistry ". The presentation will be held in English and it will take place in room 283. Everyone is invited!

"The Journal of Supercritical Fluids is pleased to announce the establishment of the “Gerd Brunner Lecture” to recognize the outstanding contributions of Professor Gerd Brunner to the fundamentals and applications of supercritical fluids and to the Journal of Supercritical Fluids. Professor Brunner has been on the Editorial Board of the Journal since its establishment in 1988 and has also been serving as the Regional Editor for Europe and the Middle East since 2000. The Lecture will be given at the International Symposia on Supercritical Fluids (ISSF), held every three years. The Lecturer will be selected from among leading scientists, with possible preference given to the regional area where the symposium will be held. The Lecturer will also receive a monetary prize of €1000."

https://www.journals.elsevier.com/the-journal-of-supercritical-fluids/news/introducing-the-inaugural-gerd-brunner-lecture 

On 4th May at 9:30, Muhammad Ismahil will present the results of his bachelor's thesis with the title: "Untersuchung des Compoundierprozesses von Lignin und PLA im Zweischneckenextruder". The presentation will take place in room 283. Everyone is invited!

On 3rd May at 9:00, Sebastian Rotzolk will present the results of his master's thesis with the title: "Entwicklung eines kontinuierlichen in situ Extraktionsprozesses von Mikroalgenprodukten mit Hilfe von ROKAnol NL5". The presentation will take place in room 283. Everyone is invited!

Jun.-Prof. Dr. Pavel Gurikov has joined the Editorial Board of the journal "Gels", congratulations! The journal "Gels" is an international, open access journal on physical and chemical gel-based materials. Click on the folllowing link to get more information about it.

On 22th March at 9:30,  Timo Scherwinski will present the results of his bachelor's thesis with the title: "Entkoffeinierung von Kaffeebohnen mit Dichlormethan und Vergleich zu alternativen organischen Lösemitteln: Einfluss der Wärmeübertragung an einer Laboranlage". The presentation will take place in room 283. Everyone is invited!

We are very happy to inform you that our cooperation partner BASF has won the German Design Award 2018 with their aerogel product SLENTITE. Click con the following link for more information: SLENTITE® gewinnt German Design Award 2018

Dr. Michał Blatkiewicz has joined the "Molecular Methods for Separation Processes" group as a new research assistant. He has studied Chemical and Process Engineering at the Cracow University of Technology and he completed his PhD in 2017 at the Technical University of Lodz, at the Process and Environmental Engineering department. His PhD topic was continuous methods of concentration and purification of fungal laccases. Welcome!

Professor Patrina Paraskevopoulou, Assistant Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), spent a DAAD scholarship of three months at our Institute to work on the NanoHybrids project. Click on the following link to read the whole interview.

Our biorefinery group and Tesa work together to make plant residues usable in adhesives. Click on the following link if you would like to know more information about it!

On 13th Feburary at 10:00, Jan-Philipp Köther will present the results of his master's thesis with the title: "Development of a continuous emulsion-gelation process for the production of alginate based aerogel microparticles". The presentation will take place in room 283. Everyone is invited!

On 7th Feburary at 11:00,  Andres Gonzalez de Castilla will present the results of his master's thesis with the title: "Analysis and Refinement of the COSMO-RS-ES Model Based on Free Energies of Transfer of Ions and Electrolyte Solubility Data". The presentation will take place in room 283. Everyone is invited!

On 5th Feburary at 10:00,  Zhixing Chen will present the results of his master's thesis with the title: "Adsorption Equilibria of Modifiers on Silicas  in sc-CO2: Measurements and Validation of  Mixed Retention Model in SFC". The presentation will take place in room 283. Everyone is invited!

On the 23rd of January, the Kick-off-meeting of the cluster „Beitrag der Aerogele zur Energieeffizienz-Erhöhung in der Industrie“ (Contribution of aerogels to the increase of energy efficency in industry) will be held at TUHH. The cluster is funded by the BMWI and involves four projects of research institutions and their partners from industry:
AeroFurnance (ZAE Bayern), AeroPROCast (DLR), NAFT (TU Dresden), AeroKonti (TUHH).

You can find more information in the following link: BMWi Cluster „Beitrag der Aerogele zur Energieeffizienz-Erhöhung in der Industrie“

Tim Kuczynski has joined the Aerogel group as a new research assistant. He finished his Master Thesis at the Institute of Process and Plant Engineering with the title "Implementierung, Evaluierung und Weiterentwicklung dezentraler Regelungskozepte für die reaktive Trennwandkolonne". Welcome!

On 18th January at 17:15, M.Sc. Joana Gil Gomez will present her doctoral thesis  of the FSP  "Integrated Biotechnology and Process Engineering" on the topic: "Development of a lignin recovery process targeting its formulation and application into consumer goods". The presentation will take place in building A room 0.01. Everyone is invited!

As the year is coming to an end, we would like to take this opportunity to give you a short overview about our achivements and updates of 2017.

During the last year, four new staff members have been joined our research group: Marc Conrad, Sheila Ruiz Barbero, Oliver Fellechner, and Uta Paulsen. Moreover, we had many visitors from all over the world:

• Juliane Vigano (University of Campinas, Brazil)
• Ana Morais (National Laboratory of Energy and Geology, Portugal)
• Mirelle Dogenski (Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil)
• Patrina Paraskevopoulou (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece)
• Alvaro Sanchez (University of Valladolid, Spain)
• Students from Bulgaria and Spain
• Prof. Walter G. Chapman (RICE University, USA)
• Aleksandra Nesic (Public university in Belgrade, Serbia)

Apart from this,10 master theses and 17 project and bachelor theses have been successfully defended, congratulations to everyone! Especially, we would like to congratulate our recent Dr.-Ing.'s: Philipp Glembin, René Heils and Eric Ritter. We wish you all the best in the future!

As this is not enough, we would also like to mention that:

• 13 new publications have been published this year in the group of Prof. Smirnova
• Our aerogel group leader Dr. Pavel Gurikov has started a new position in our institute as Junior Professor
• Aerogelex is growing up step by step, and it has received the European Nanomedicine Award 2017
• The plant for the production of 50 L of aerogel has been inaugurated
• The first exposition of BioMP in Straubing was a complete success

With all these good news, we wish everyone a Merry Christmas and all the best for the coming 2018!

On 11th December at 16:00, Alexander Kromm will present the results of his master's thesis with the title: "Hybrid alginate -Hyaluronic acid  aerogel for pharmaceutical application". The presentation will take place in room 283. Everyone is invited!

On 8th December at 9:30, Clemens Müller will present the results of his master's thesis with the title: "Influence of the pressurization step on the supercritical drying of aerogels - a mathematical model". The presentation will take place in room 283. Everyone is invited!

We are very happy to inform you that on 7th December at 13:30, M.Sc. Eric Ritter will defend his doctoral thesis on the topic: "Kontinuierliche extraktive Biokatalyse in wässrigen tensidbasierten Zweiphasensystemen". He has been working in the group of Prof. Smirnova (V8) since January, 2013. The presentation will take place in room 3550,  building M, ES 42. Everyone is invited!

On 29th November at 13:00, Jonas Heuer will present the results of his master's thesis with the title: "Molecular Dynamics Simulations and Experimental Validation of Protein Adsorption for Chromatographic Applications". The presentation will be in German and it will take place in room 283. Everyone is invited!

Our TVT family has grown with a new doctor! On November 10th, 2017, Rene Heils successfully defended his doctoral thesis "Prozessentwicklung zur Integration von enzymatischen Reaktionen in die Reaktivrektifikation". Congratulations, Dr.  Heils!

On Monday 13 November at 16:00, Elham Navrozi will present the results of her bachelor thesis with the title: "Entfettung von Jatropha-Presskuchen mit überkritischen Fluiden". The presentation will take place in room 283. Everyone is invited!

On 1 November 2017 Professor Patrina Paraskevopoulou started her Research Stay at the Institute of Thermal Separation Processes at TUHH in Hamburg, Germany. Her Research Stay is funded by DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) and will last for three months until 31 January 2018. Together with Professor Irina Smirnova and her research team Professor Paraskevopoulou will be working on the synthesis of cost-effective W-doped biopolymer aerogels, via environmentally-friendly processes, with potential applications to catalysis. This project comprises a synergistic effort at the interface of chemistry and engineering. It will combine the expertise of the applicant in the synthesis and applications of catalysts with the broad expertise of the host organization in the synthesis and processing of polysaccharide (e.g., alginate) aerogels.

Professor Paraskevopoulou is an Assistant Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA). She earned her Ph.D. (2003) at NKUA working with Professor K. Mertis on inorganic/organometallic chemistry and catalysis. She was a Post-Doctoral researcher at the Missouri University of Science&Technology, MO, USA (2006-2007). She has been awarded four scholarships by the Greek State Scholarship’s Foundation for academic excellence (1994-1997 and 1999-2000). Besides synthetic inorganic chemistry focusing on complexes with metal-metal bonds, her interests include radical and metathesis polymerization reactions, oxidation and atom-transfer reactions, electrochemistry, and she has published over 30 articles in chemistry. Her h-index is 10. Over the last 5 years, she has given 5 invited talks at national and international scientific conferences, and she has participated in two COST Actions and two Research Projects funded through the Greek National Strategic Reference Framework (2012-2015). She served as a co-PI of “Synthesis of Novel Advanced Materials by New Generation Catalysts via ROMP (Ring Opening Metathesis Polymerization) Reactions,” (600,000 €, 2012-2015).

 Assist. Prof. Patrina Paraskevopoulou

We are very happy to inform you that on 10th November at 14:00, M.Sc. René Heils will defend his doctoral thesis on the topic: "Prozessentwicklung zur Integration von enzymatischen Reaktionen in die Reaktivrektifikation". He has been working in the group of Prof. Smirnova from September, 2011, to June, 2016. The presentation will take place in building M, ES 42. Everyone is invited!

On 09th November at 17:15, M.Sc. Simon Müller will present his doctoral thesis of the FSP "Integrated Biotechnology and Process Engineering"on the topic: "Calculation of Solid-Liquid-Equilibria of Salts in Organic Solvents and Solvent Mixtures Using the Predictive Model COSMO-RS". The presentation will take place in building A room 0.01. Everyone is invited!

On 19th October at 13:00, Erik Dicke will present the results of his bachelor's thesis with the title: " Ligninhaltige Resorcin-Formaldehyde-Aerogele". The presentation will take place in room 283. Everyone is invited!

On 18th October at 10:00, Luca Schmidt will present the results of his bachelor's thesis with the title: "Gewinnung von Hemicellulose aus Biomassehydrolysaten mittels Verdrängungskristallisation". The presentation will take place in room 283. Everyone is invited!

On 4th October at 9:30, Ingeborg Heuschkel will present the results of her master's thesis completed in Portugal with the title: "Recovery of biopolymers from marine waste streams through a green cascade strategy integrating ionic liquids and pressurized CO2 ". The presentation will take place in room 283. Everyone is invited!

Marc Conrad, after defending his Master Thesis at our Institute, has joined the biorefinery group as a research assistant. Welcome!

A lecture by Dr. Steiner from USA aerogel manufacturer, Aerogel Technologies, will take place on 30 Aug (Wedn) at 10:15 in room 283 (building O). Everyone is invited!

On 31st August at 13:00, Boryana Petrova will present the results of her bachelor's thesis with the title: "Impregnation of rosemary extract into silica aerogel". The presentation will take place in room 283. Everyone is invited!

We are very happy to inform you that a review chapter on strategies toward tailor-made aerogels in Chemical Engineering from Prof. Irina Smirnova and Dr. Pavel Gurikov has been published recently in the prestigious journal "Annual Review of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering".

Dr. Gurikov, our Aerogel group leader, will occupy the new junior professorship position "Development and modeling of novel nanoporous materials" at the TUHH. Congratulations!

Miaotian Sun has won the award for best poster at the 4th Workshop of FSP "Integrated Biotechnology and Process Engineering" on 08 June 2017 for her poster "Synthesis of Stationary Phases for Chiral Separations and Thermodynamic Studies of Adsorption by Supercritical Fluid Chromatography". Victor Marrone and Elham Nawrozi have won the 3rd poster award with their poster with topic "High Pressure Cascade for a Selective Conversion of Lignocellulosic Biomass to Bulk Chemicals". Congratulations!