TMFB// NEWS

TMFB//
NEWS
01/2013
Cluster of Excellence
Tailor-Made Fuels
from Biomass
RWTH Aachen University
NEWS //
The 2nd funding period
of TMFB has started!
Selective cleavage of lignin
linkages – with a little help
from Yale
In situ product recovery
of platform chemicals in Aachen
and Berkeley
(Eco)toxicological
investigations of (bio)fuels
Preface
The 2nd funding period of TMFB has started!
Dear ladies and gentlemen,
Contact:
Prof. Dr.-Ing. S. Pischinger
Coordinator of the Cluster of Excellence
RWTH Aachen University
Tel.: +49 241 80-96200
[email protected]
I am glad to announce that on November 1st, 2012,
the 2nd funding period of our Cluster of Excellence “Tailor-Made Fuels from Biomass” has
started. This means that we will be able to continue our interdisciplinary approach in developing
a fuel design process for tailor-made fuels from
biomass for at least another 5 years from now on.
On June 15th 2012, shortly after the last newsletter had been published, the German Wissenschaftsrat and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) announced that our Cluster
of Excellence will be part also of the 2nd phase
of Germany’s excellence initiative, starting in
November 2012 and lasting until October 2017.
Both the achievements of the last 5 years as well
as our vision and goals for the upcoming period
were acknowledged and awarded by the review
committee, which is a great motivation for the
whole TMFB team.
In the next 5 years, we will intensively continue
our biofuels research and add new ideas and
tools to our chosen path. Model-based approaches will play a major role in predicting the proper-
ties of promising fuel candidates; in parallel, we
are planning to emphasize rapid fuel screening
methods to strengthen the simulative quality and
increase the screening throughput of new tailormade fuels. The development of novel, adjusted
combustion systems and engines will close the
interdisciplinary circle, hereby establishing and
strengthening the envisioned fuel design process
as main result of our work.
With this newsletter, we would like to invite you
to take part in our work and find out more about
the projects and the people within TMFB. If you
are interested in our work and would like more
information, please contact us anytime.
Stefan Pischinger
6th TMFB International
Workshop and 1st International
Conference
On June 18th to 20th, 2013, the 6th TMFB International
Workshop and 1st International Conference will take
place: The Call for Papers is open now!
Contact:
Dipl.-Ing. Dipl.-Wirt.Ing. Florian Kremer
Fuel Design Center Aachen
RWTH Aachen University
Tel.: +49 241 80-95352
[email protected]
www.fuelcenter.rwth-aachen.de
In 2013, the Cluster of Excellence “Tailor-Made Fuels from Biomass” will organize its 6th International
Workshop. This time the workshop will be transformed into an international conference, opening
up the stage for scientists from all over the world to
present their work on the production and combustion of biofuels. An elitist group of key note speakers
could already be confirmed to present their latest
achievements during the conference:
Tom Welton, Professor of Sustainable Chemistry,
Imperial College London
Philip de Goey, Chair for Combustion Technology, University of Eindhoven
Ion Marius Sivebæk, Institute for Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark
Jens Nielsen, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology
Charles Westbrook, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, USA
Ulrich Kramer, Ford GmbH, Research and Advanced Powertrain Engineering, Cologne
The Cluster of Excellence TMFB would like to
invite everybody interested to take this opportunity to visit us in Aachen and discuss the latest
developments in biofuels research together with
us and our International Advisory Board. More
information on the conference and the official
Call for Papers can be found on our webpage
www.fuelcenter.rwth-aachen.de !
Review 1
5th TMFB International Workshop on
June 13th/14th, 2012
5th International Workshop was a huge success.
On June 13th and 14th, 2012, the 5th International Workshop took place at the Eurogress
Conference Venue in Aachen. Over the course of
two days, TMFB staff members presented their
work and discussed current problems and aims
of their work with more than 140 colleagues and
external participants. Two invited speakers, Prof.
David Foster from the University of Wisconsin,
USA and Prof. Erik Heeres from the University of
Groningen, Netherlands contributed to the motivating scientific exchange during the workshop
with outstanding lectures. In the afternoon of the
second day, the members of the International Advisory Board and the Industrial Affiliates Program
met for fruitful discussions and highly valuable
feedback on our work.
Impressions from the 5th TMFB International Workshop
Review 2
Joint Symposium with CatchBio on
September 20th, 2012
1st Joint Symposium with CatchBio as starting point of a new collaboration
In September 2012, a new collaboration of TMFB
was inaugurated: Together with the CatchBio research group from the Netherlands (www.catchbio.com) a joint symposium was held in Aachen’s
Quellenhof. Nearly 160 members from CatchBio
and TMFB participated in this symposium with
presentations by principal researchers from both
groups that explained the scientific approaches and
visions to one another. Here, especially the field of
green catalysis was emphasized as it is within the
main expertise of the CatchBio reseachers. The conference was enhanced by two external presentations
by Dr. Stefan Schmerbeck from Volkswagen AG and
Dr. Jean Paul Lange from Shell Global Solutions.
The great success of this 1-day exchange between
both groups was cemented with a return invitation
by CatchBio for the researchers to hold the 2nd joint
symposium in the Netherlands for early 2014!
Selective cleavage of lignin
linkages – with a little help
from Yale
How to extract valuable fuel components from wood
Contact:
Dipl.-Chem. Thorsten vom Stein
Chair of Technical Chemistry and
Petrol Chemistry
RWTH Aachen University
Tel.: +49 241 80-20459
[email protected]
www.itmc.rwth-aachen.de
When the Cluster of Excellence TMFB first started, a fractionation system was developed which
allowed disintegrating wood into its three main
components: cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin.
This concept was developed by Thorsten vom
Stein in his diploma thesis together with Phillipp
Grande under instruction of Pablo Dominguez. It
is now a crucial part of the TMFB reference process for the fuel production from bio-mass which
is currently established based on the results of the
1st cluster phase. After these first ventures in biomass chemistry, Thorsten vom Stein continued
his research career in the TMFB Cluster with his
dissertation at the Chair of Technical Chemistry
and Petrol Chemistry, which focuses on the valorization of the lignin fraction. This matter will play
an important role in the 2nd funding period of the
cluster.
„What makes lignin special is that it is one of the
few abundant natural sources for aromatic com-
pounds,” says Thorsten vom Stein. These constitute, inter alia, the basis structure for several pharmaceuticals; at the Cluster of Excellence TMFB,
however, they are to be used for the production
of high-octane fuels. Therefore, the chemists at
TMFB try to identify potential fuel candidates that
can be obtained from lignin and concomitantly
elude catalytic pathways towards these molecules. The problem with this is that the complex
structure and the chemical recalcitrance of lignin
make it a very challenging substrate. Because of
that, the scientists were searching for a particular sub-structure in the multifaceted network of
lignin, which they could use as a target molecule
for the development of new selective cleavage
catalysts. “For the cleavage of lignin we take the
β-O4-linkage as a basis. This structural motif is
the most abundant linkage in lignin, even though
lignin itself can even differ from tree to tree. This
makes the compound especially attractive for our
In situ product recovery of
platform chemicals in Aachen
and Berkeley
The two Chairs of Chemical Engineering cooperated successfully in research
Contact:
Dipl.-Ing. Frederike Carstensen
Dept. of Chemical Engineering
RWTH Aachen University
Tel.: +49 241 80-29948
[email protected]
www.avt.rwth-aachen.de
Frederike Carstensen had already been working
for three years in the Cluster of Excellence TMFB
on the topic “in situ product recovery” when this
summer she was given the opportunity to look
at her work from a different perspective: She
spent 3 months at the University of Berkeley in
the research group of Prof. Bell, at the Department of Chemical Engineering. Prof. Bell is one
of the members of TMFB’s International Advisory
Board. „At first, I didn’t expect that what I would
be learning in Berkeley could be so directly applied to our work in TMFB – but it gave me various new ideas,” Frederike Carstensen said after
her return.
Frederike Carstensen is one of the scientists at
AVT (Chemical Engineering in Aachen). She
works at the Chair of Chemical Process Engineering with Prof. Wessling. “I thought that the
presentation Prof. Bell gave last year at the International Workshop of the Cluster of Excellence
TMFB was very interesting. So I introduced my-
self to him.” Prof. Bell was interested in a cooperation project; everything else was sorted out via
email in the following. Both sides had to master
the challenge to find a project which was of use
for either of them. “At the beginning I was afraid
that this wouldn’t work out, but then we found a
project which was beneficial for both of us.”
Frederike Carstensen has been working on in situ
product recovery of itaconic acid in Aachen for
three years. The acid is produced by fungi cells
of U. maydis in a bioreactor. Itaconic acid is a
platform chemical, that means, a chemical building block from which biofuel is synthesized by
linking those building blocks together. To extract
the itaconic acid from the bioreactor, membrane
processes are used. The membranes work as
filters that retain bigger particles and let smaller
ones pass through. The goal of this process is
to separate the fungi cells from the itaconic acid
solution. However, the filtration of these cells is
very difficult because they produce surface-active
Lignin
OH
O
O
OH
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
=
Ph2P
PPh2
Ru
P
Ph2 A
HO
O
H
O
O
OH
C
valuable aromatic
platform chemicals
B
Tailor-made catalyst
research.” Instead of using a brute force approach
with heterogeneous catalysts, the team of scientists is currently working with molecular defined
catalysts, which allow a tunable selectivity. Over
the last years, the scientists could little by little fill
their “catalytic toolbox”. By now, they have gathered three generations of catalysts with which
they can “pick out” distinct chemical bonds in
the model substances and activate them for the
subsequent reductive cleavage. For instance, ruthenium complexes were developed which allow
a selective C-C cleavage in the β-O4 model compounds, while iridium catalysts favor the cleavage
of the adjacent C-O bond. In this way, the product
range of the catalytic cleavage processes can be
controlled. “In this scenario, the catalyst acts like
a control lever on the molecular level,” Thorsten
vom Stein explains.
Furthermore, these new catalysts are not limited
to the cleavage of lignin linkages. Just this year,
the scientists have reached an outstanding scientific outcome: the first generation of rutheniumbased cleavage catalysts also efficiently promoted
the direct hydrogenation of CO2 to methanol.
Along the same line it was shown, that this family
of catalysts proved to be very versatile catalysts
for the reduction of other biogenic platform molecules in general.
One of the latest classes of catalysts that have
been investigated in Aachen is based on iridium.
That is why the scientists from Aachen joined
forces with one of the pioneers in this field: Prof.
Robert H. Crabtree from Yale University. “Because
we are relatively new to this field, it is extremely
beneficial for us to work with someone, who has
already 30 years of experience in iridium chemistry. So I went to Yale as a part of a research
cooperation,” states Thorsten vom Stein. Also involved in this research cooperation between Yale
University and RWTH Aachen University is the
compounds that make the fungi sticky. The challenge is to run the bioreaction process with integrated membrane stable over weeks without any
decline in filtration performance. If the itaconic
acid is not removed from the bioreactor, the biochemical reaction is inhibited and the fungi cannot produce more of the acid because too much
of the product would be accumulated inside the
bioreactor. Thus, it is crucial to take the itaconic
acid out of the reactor.
In the research approach which is used in TMFB,
the membranes are submerged in the bioreactor.
This process mode presents some challenges:
Once the reactor has been started, the membrane
cannot be removed anymore. Therefore it is crucial to prevent the membrane from being blocked
during the filtration process. To do so, the scientists at the Chair of Chemical Process Engineering have developed a process mode called
“reverse-flow diafiltration”. This process mode is
characterized by two liquid streams which are alternatingly exchanged over the same membrane.
Hereby, the volume in the reactor stays constant.
This reverse-flow mode prevents the membrane
from blocking. Frederike Carstensen and her
instructors Prof. Melin and Prof. Wessling have
even patented this method. There is a close cooperation with the Chair of Biochemical Engineering of Prof. Büchs where the fermentation
process itself and the optimization of the reaction
conditions are taken care of. “We were first able
to develop this process of reverse-flow diafiltration within the work of TMFB, since here we were
given the opportunity to apply it in a real process
for the first time.”
The Department of Chemical Engineering in
Aachen is part of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. In Berkeley, on the other hand, Chemical
Engineering is strongly interacting with Chemistry. Therefore, Frederike Carstensen was given
the opportunity in Berkeley to extend her skills
in the chemical sector: “I still worked on in situ
product recovery, but on another separation task.
Some new variables had to be taken into account
here.” In Aachen she worked on the continuous
product recovery of itaconic acid from a fungicontaining suspension, whereas in Berkeley she
worked on the separation of the product furfural
from a chemical reaction solution with dense
membranes by the use of pervaporation. Furfural,
like itaconic acid, is a platform chemical. With
pervaporation (a combination of evaporation and
group of Prof. Paul Anastas, who is former Assistant Administrator for EPA’s (Environmental Protection Agency USA) Office of Research and Development and current director of the Center for
Green Chemistry and Green Engineering in Yale.
“For the optimum outcome, we got them both on
board: Prof. Anastas has the crucial know-how on
biomass conversion, while the extensive knowledge on homogeneous catalysis lies with Prof.
Crabtree.”
At the time the interview took place, Thorsten
vom Stein had already been in Yale for 6 weeks.
The stay in Yale had been put out for a total of
12 weeks. In Yale, the findings on catalysts for
cleavage of lignin linkages Thorsten vom Stein
brought along with him could be reaffirmed. “But
additionally, we achieved a genuine breakthrough
and discovered something that will be a great
step towards the overall goal of selective lignin
depolymerization. This was only possible for us
because both sides cooperated. But the findings
are too fresh to talk about in this context. I myself
have just come to know it yesterday. We will now
work on the confirmation of the results.”
A further reason why the stay in Yale has been
worthwhile: The results that had been reached in
Aachen could be looked at from another point of
view. To solidify this very effective connection between Aachen and Yale, it is planned to establish a
regular exchange between both research facilities.
permeation through the membrane) it could be
well separated from the water-solvent mixture
due to different solubilities in the membrane material. “Different parameters needed to be considered here. The influence of temperature, activity
coefficient etc. needed to be analyzed for the separation.” Even though in Berkeley they worked
with a chemical reactor instead of a bioreactor,
the aim was the same: The selective recovery of
the product before its accumulation in the reactor.
The scientists in Berkeley have been working
on reaction pathways that have not been in the
focus of the Cluster of Excellence TMFB yet,
but which could be valuable for the research in
Aachen. Maybe scientists in TMFB will be inspired for future studies on platform chemicals
for fuels from biomass by the ideas from Berkeley. Frederike Carstensen also talks about ideas
for new separation tasks that she could integrate
in her own research. In any case, the cooperation
between Aachen and Berkeley has been a mutually beneficial experience with fruitful outcome.
The Cluster of Excellence TMFB is committed to
deepen and expand this research relationship as
well as to build new cooperation ties.
Retentate (water rich)
H2O
C6H4O2
Hydrolysate
Dilute furfural
Permeate
(sugars)
solution
(furfural rich)
Fermenter
Pervaporationmembrane
(Eco)toxicological
investigations of (bio)fuels
How to make sure that our developed fuels are not toxic
– and how to have a baby at the same time
Contact:
Dipl.-Biol. Kerstin Bluhm
Inst. for Environmental Research
(Biology V)
Department of Ecosystem Analysis
RWTH Aachen University
Tel.: +49 241 80-26524
[email protected]
www.bio5.rwth-aachen.de
Kerstin Bluhm is one of the researchers of the Department of Ecosystem Analysis at the Institute
for Environmental Research at RWTH Aachen
University, where she works in the project “(Eco)
toxicological investigations of (bio)fuels”. The
project aims to adapt and improve existing test
systems to allow an investigation of biofuels. One
difficulty thereby is that the potential biofuels that
are currently under investigation at the Cluster
of Excellence TMFB are volatile and can corrode
materials like plastics – which excludes, for example, the common use of plastic vessels in the test
systems. Another goal of the project is to identify
those test systems that are suitable for determining the essential toxicological characteristics of
the biofuels.
„We are testing different scenarios. First, we have
acute tests in which living organisms are exposed
to a dilution of the biofuel that is to be tested in a
medium that permits optimal growth conditions
for the organism. For example, we perform tests
with green algae, the water flea Daphnia magna
and fish embryos – as an alternative to animal
investigations with adult fish. We examine if the
organisms survive exposure to the biofuels. The
results of these tests are very important, because
it may happen that fuel ends up in waters – and in
that case, the fuel better not be toxic.” In the project, the biofuels are tested at different concentrations. For each fuel, a dose-response-curve which
shows how many organisms survive at a certain
concentration is generated. The resulting values
can be compared to the values of other fuels.
Besides the acute tests, mechanism-specific tests
are performed. “For example, we use the bacteria-based Ames fluctuation test to find out if the
tested biofuels cause mutagenic effects. Furthermore, we test dioxin-like or hormone-like effects
with cell lines, we perform micronucleus test, investigate genotoxicity, teratogenicity… the range
of effects we cover with the tests is really broad.”
This extensive project also provides the topic of
Kerstin Bluhm’s doctoral thesis. “I started in a project that was limited to literature research on ecotoxicological assessment of biofuels. That was
three years ago.” But the doctoral thesis is not the
only challenge in Kerstin Bluhm’s life: while she is
talking about her research, Kerstin Bluhm holds
her baby son. “He is now 6 weeks old and wants
to be occupied all day long,” she explains.
Of course, pregnancy has effects on daily working routine: „For example, I was not allowed to
work at the lab anymore. I thus took more of an
instructing role for the students that carry on part
of the project. There is always data to be evaluated, publications to be written, like an article we
published in the renowned journal Energy an Environmental Science, reviews to be worked on…
I also had more time to visit meetings and represent the project, for example during the SETAC
North America Meeting in November 2011, where
I even won a prestigious award for my platform
presentation. That way, I could easily bridge the
period of time I was not allowed to be in the lab,”
Kerstin Bluhm clarified. Of course, there is a certain time pressure for the research in the Cluster
of Excellence TMFB. After all, the research activities are to provide results before the projects end.
That is why Kerstin Bluhm took parental leave
from her job as a scientific staff member for six
months but is still pursuing her doctoral studies.
“However, at present, I don’t get anything done,
because of the baby. Family AND research –
‘easy’ is something different.”
Much support for Kerstin Bluhm comes from
her advisor, Prof. Hollert. “He is a family-friendly
person.” That the Cluster of Excellence is funded
over a predefined period of time was also beneficial for planning a family. At conferences and
important lectures, the Cluster Office furthermore
organizes childcare and parent-child rooms. In the
second cluster phase, the development of additional improvements specifically for families will
be accelerated by the Cluster of Excellence.
Handling
Transport/storage
Biofuels
Combustion
Emissions
Comprehensive
(eco)toxicological
investigations
OH
O
O
OH
O
Inter­
mediates/
waste
products
Production process
O
Identification of the most
environmentally friendly biofuel
Feedstock
New group in TMFB
Prof. Anett Schallmey, Junior Professor for Biocatalysis
With the start of the second funding period a new research group has joint our Cluster of Excellence:
We are happy to announce that Prof. Anett Schallmey and her group are now part of TMFB. Prof.
Schallmey’s expertise is the use of various enzymes, especially oxygenases, in biocatalysis. With her
work, she will be part of the TMFB Integrated Research Field A (“From Biomass to Biofuels”) and contribute to the treatment and fractionation of lignocellulosic biomass. Her professorship was established
in the context of the Institutional Strategy for 2020 of RWTH Aachen University (3rd Funding line of the
excellence initiative) which is yet another example for the close link between our Cluster of Excellence
and the strategy concept of our university.
We are glad that Prof. Schallmey has now joint our group and would like to welcome her and her coworkers in the TMFB family!
News & Awards
Prof. Dr. Carsten Bolm - Prof. Dr. Carsten Bolm, Executive Director of the Chair of Organic Chemistry, was appointed as Adjunct Professor at Wuhan Institute of Technology (WIT) in Wuhan, China.
Dipl.-Ing. Frederike Carstensen - On March 27th 2012, Frederike Carstensen won a poster prize
for her work on “Continuous in situ product recovery of itaconic acid via pulsed diafiltration” at the Information Day Membrane Technology in Frankfurt/Main. Co-authors were Tobias Klement, M.Sc., Prof. Dr. Jochen
Büchs, Prof. Dr. Thomas Melin and Prof. Dr. Matthias Wessling.
Prof. Dr. Ravi X Fernandes - Ravi Fernandes received the JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion
of Science) award as an invited visiting professor for research in Japan and was hosted by the University
of Tokyo from November 19th to December 12th, 2012. The award is granted to promote international scientific cooperation and exchange. Furthermore, he was the invited plenary speaker for the 50th National
Japanese Symposium on Combustion from December 5th to 7th, 2012, in Nagoya, Japan. Ravi Fernandes
is junior professor for Physico Chemical Fundamentals of Combustion.
Prof. Dr. Henner Hollert - In September 2012, Henner Hollert, Head of Ecosystem Analyses, was
awarded as Adjunct Professor at Chongquing University, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences. The University of Chongquing is one of the leading state universities in China. Together with
Chongquing University, the Institute for Environmental Research at RWTH Aachen University investigates fate and effects of environmental pollutants at the Three Gorges Dam.
Dipl.-Chem. Jakob Mottweiler - Jakob Mottweiler worked as visiting scientist in the laboratories
of Prof. Dr. Avelino Corma at the Instituto de Tecnología Química (UPV-CSIC), Universidad Politécnica de
Valencia, Spain, being supported by a DAAD pre-doctoral fellowship. Jakob Mottweiler works as a PhDStudent in the Bolm Group at the Chair of Organic Chemistry II.
Peyman Yamin, M.Sc. - Peyman Yamin, Institute of Technical Thermodynamics, won a poster prize
in the category “Efficient material conversion” for his work on “First steps towards quantitative modeling
of the influence of solvents on lignin cleavage” at the Annual Meeting of ProcessNet and the 30st DECHEMA Annual Meeting of the Biotechnologies, which took place from September 10th to 13th, 2012, in
Karlsruhe. Co-author was Prof. Dr. Kai Leonhard.
Where we are
Aachen is located in the very west of Germany at
the border triangle of Belgium, The Netherlands
and Germany.
Founded in 765 AD, the city was decisively influenced by Charles the Great (also known as
Charlemagne) who chose Aachen as his favorite
royal residence. It was the monarch who commissioned the construction of the cathedral that
is now the town’s famous landmark.
Aachen is also known for its Printen, a kind of
gingerbread that has been produced here in over
1000 years, and the annual Horse Riding Tournament (CHIO Aachen).
In 1870, RWTH Aachen University was founded.
It has a very high reputation nationally as well
as internationally and has been established as
a university of excellence by the German federal
government. Today, about 30.000 students are
enrolled at RWTH Aachen University.
TMFB News is a newsletter published regularly
by the Cluster of Excellence “Tailor-Made Fuels
from Biomass”, RWTH Aachen University.
Contact Details:
Fuel Design Center
c/o Institute for Combustion Engines (VKA)
RWTH Aachen University
Schinkelstr. 8
52062 Aachen, Germany
[email protected]
www.fuelcenter.rwth-aachen.de
Tel.: +49 241 80-95352
Fax: +49 241 80-92630
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