Engineering of Materials via Catalysis and Characterization (EMCC)
The Engineering of Materials via Catalysis and Characterization (EMCC) group is a part of GREAT (Prof. Heynderickx), where heterogeneous catalysis is the basic key in material science and understanding.
Environmental applications are envisaged via kinetic modelling processes, such as heterogeneous photocatalysis for pollutant degradation in (surface) waters as pollution remediation technique for air and aqueous phase systems. Catalyst characterization for indoor air cleaning purposes (gas phase pollution mitigation) is part of the research.
Catalyst material synthesis is not limited to degradation reactions, but also organic synthesis reactions (aldol synthesis) are studied. Next to catalytic applications, part of the research is focusing on hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) for upgrading waste (mostly from marine origin) into hydrochar (adsorbent material) and activated carbon (adsorbent, catalyst carrier material…) with appropriate applications for environmental remediation. Recently, his group is involved in upgrading of waste plastic via the HTC process.
Prof. Heynderickx obtained NRF (Korea) funding to work out and evaluate the technology, developed in the co-project Horizon-Europe ELECTRO, ultimately aiming at South Korean implementation. He is (co-)author of +90 publications in high-impact journals (average IF = 9.2) and he has presented his research on both national and international important conferences. He received the Young Scientist Award on the 14th International Congress on Catalysis (ICC) in Seoul, Korea (2008).
Principle Investigator: Philippe Heynderickx