At the 3rd International Conference on Aerogels, Philip Sidney Pein earned 2nd place for his talk on using biopolymer-derived carbon aerogels as catalyst supports for hydrogen evolution.

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.

On Friday, 30.06.2023 we would like to revive old contacts as well as establish new ones. For this reason, we are organizing a meeting of former and current employees of our institute once again after 5 years (including a Corona break !). We are very much looking forward to the reunion! Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

The "NanoHybrids" project won the Ralf Dahrendorf Prize 2021 for its successful research collaboration at the European level and high-profile science communication. Within the project students in various grades participate in workshops on hydrogel formation and supercritical drying at the Institute of Thermal Process Engineering at Hamburg University of Technology. The project KinderForscher an der TUHH (KIFO) and aerogel researchers at the Institute of Thermal Process Engineering developed a digital learning platform to explain the aerogel manufacturing process in a way everyone can understand.

Jan Philipp Bittner received the 2023 poster award at the RC Biobased Processes Workshop for his MD study on solvent effects in alcohol dehydrogenase, selected from 66 outstanding contributions.

“Be brave!” was the theme of Monday night @ernstdeutschtheater 💪 The latest show of the talk event series “Wahnsinn trifft Methode” dealt with all things courage - whether it be at university, in everday life, in a war zone or in the online dating world.⁠ ⁠ In attendence was our vice president Prof. Dr. Irina Smirnova - who explained why all researchers are brave - as well as singer @annadepenbuschmusik , anxiety and OCD expert Prof. Dr. Anja Riesel, consulting psychologist @parship @piakabitzsch and war reporter Jan Jessen. The night was hosted by @julia_niharika_sen and Prof. Dr. Dieter Lenzen. 🎤⁠  

The review on hydrothermal pretreatment won the BIORESTEC 2023 Impactful Review Award as a top-cited 2022 paper, honored at the 4th International Conference on Bioresource Technology in Italy.

Kniffelix is a product of KinderForscher at the TUHH and is financed by "Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung", "Ralf-Dahrendorf-Preis", "Merck" and the "Hamburg Open Online University". Visit kniffelix.de for interesting hands-on material about different research topics from everyday life including an interview with Lara Gibowsky (PhD student at the Institute of Thermal Separation Processes). More information can be found in this flyer.