People

ZAP

Jeriffa De Clercq jeriffa.declercq@ugent.be

Jeriffa De Clercq is associate professor at Ghent University since 2016. She obtained her master’s degree in Chemical Engineering in 1996 and PhD degree in 2006 at the same university. She is co-heading the Industrial Catalysis and Adsorption Technology research group, comprising about 10 researchers.

Her research focuses on (i) catalyst and adsorbent development and mapping the relationship between their properties and performance for optimization and (ii) phase equilibria and separation processes. Also catalyst stability, re-use and reaction mechanisms are investigated. The studied applications include -within the field of catalysis - several biomass conversion reactions, the Suzuki coupling reaction and the hydrogen gas production, and -within the field of adsorption- the selective removal of metals from water and the removal of natural organic matter fractions from surface water. Since thermodynamics steer (reaction and) separation processes, measurement of phase equilibria and their adequate prediction is studied with the ultimate aim to design full separation trains in Aspen Plus, for e.g. biomass valorization.

Jeroen Lauwaert jeroen.lauwaert@ugent.be

Jeroen Lauwaert is an assistant professor. In 2015, he obtained his PhD degree at the Laboratory for Chemical Technology (LCT) in close collaboration with the Center for Ordered Materials, Organometallics and Catalysis (COMOC), on the design of cooperative acid-base catalysts for aldol reactions. During his doctoral research, he gained international experience in the research group of Prof. Jones at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, USA. Afterwards, he started as a postdoc within the research group Industrial Catalysis and Adsorption Technology (INCAT).

His main research interests are related to process intensification for applications ranging from biomass valorization to fine chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Lignin valorization, aldol reactions, esterifications, hydrodeoxygenations and Suzuki cross-coupling reactions, are just a few of the processes he has been working on. His activities comprise a broad spectrum of fields, including heterogeneous catalyst synthesis and characterization, systematically assessing catalytic performances in terms of activity as well as stability, kinetic modelling, phase equilibria measurements, thermodynamic modeling and separation design.

Maarten Sabbe maarten.sabbe@ugent.be

Maarten K. Sabbe (assistant professor) is member of INCAT and the Laboratory for Chemical Technology. His research deals with first principles and experiment-based reaction engineering for various chemical processes with a main focus on quantitative prediction of chemical reaction rates, mainly for zeolite & noble metal catalysis and radical chemistry. For the latter he received the EFCE Excellence award in Chemical Reaction Engineering 2010 of the European Federation for Chemical Engineering for an outstanding PhD thesis. He has been visiting researcher at the ENS Lyon (France) and in the Reuter group (TUM, Munich, Germany).

He is involved in teaching the courses ‘Physical Chemistry’, ‘Industrial Inorganic Chemistry’ and ‘General Chemistry’ to the Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering Technology and ‘Chemistry of Industrial Processes’ to Master of Science in Chemical Engineering, and is secretary of the Educational council (Opleidingscommissie) Master of Science in de industriële wetenschappen: chemie.

An Verberckmoes an.verberckmoes@ugent.be

An Verberckmoes is associate professor at the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture of the Ghent University. She co-heads the INCAT Research group. She got her M.Sc. in Bio-engineering in Chemistry in 1994, obtained her Ph.D. in 1998 at the Center of Surface Science and Catalysis at the University of Leuven. Between 1998 and 2008 she worked at the R&D Center of ExxonMobil in Machelen and acquainted industrial experience in the area of catalyst and process development and scale-up of industrial catalysts. In 2008, she joined the University College of Ghent, and later in 2013, the University of Ghent.

Her research focuses on the synthesis, optimization and testing of heterogeneous catalysts (e.g. zeolites, mixed oxides, hybrid catalysts, supported nanoparticles) in various applications (e.g. alcohol dehydration, lignin depolymerization, Guerbet condensation and plasmacatalysis), and recently, she also started working on lignin valorization routes.

Lectors/ATP-A

Greta Diricks greta.diricks@ugent.be

Greet Diricks began her studies Chemistry in 1979 at Ghent University and got her Master’s degree in Chemistry in 1983. She subsequently began working on her Ph.D. in the Department of Organic Chemistry. Her doctoral research focused on the synthesis and evaluation of polar stationary phases for capillary gas chromatography. After 3 years of research with a IWONL scholarship she obtained her doctorate in October 1986.

Greet Diricks worked as a teacher until she in January 1988 started at the University College of Ghent as doctor-assistant and later as educational lecturer. Since 2013 she is full-time educational head lecturer at the University of Ghent, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Programme Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering Technology. More specifically she is lecturer-in-charge of the course ‘Chemical Analysis/Standardization’ and co-lecturer of the courses ‘Engineering Project’, ‘Organic Chemistry’, ‘Inorganic Chemistry’ and ‘Analytical Chemistry’.

Katrien Maertens katrien.maertens@ugent.be

Katrien Maertens began her studies Chemistry in 1998 at the Ghent University and got her Master’s degree in Chemistry in 2003. In the meanwhile she obtained a Master’s Programme in Teaching. After this, she followed a Subsequent Master’s Programme Environmental Sciences and Technologies.

Katrien Maertens worked as a teacher. From September 2006 she works as a part-time study counselor at the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture. She started in October 2011 at the University College of Ghent as a part-time educational lecturer and later at the University of Ghent, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering Technology. She is involved in teaching theoretical exercises at the course ‘General Chemistry’ and is a coach of the course ‘Engineering Project’.

Ingeborg Stals ingeborg.stals@ugent.be

Ingeborg Stals obtaind a PhD in Biochemistry in 2004 entitled “New insights into the glycosylation of Trichoderma reesei cellulases” after her master in Chemical Engineering Technology: chemistry. After this, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher and doctor-assistant at Ghent University (college). During these 10 years, she taught general chemistry, biomolecules, enzymology, biocatalysis and biochemical analysis methods and promoted various research projects, including several in close collaboration with industry. Her expertise is in the field of enzymatic catalysis, more specifically the degradation of lignocellulosic biomass with glycosidases and oxygenases. She is also specialized in the analysis of the reaction products formed from lignocellulose (hemicellulose, oligosaccharides) via HPAEC, GC-MS, CE, MS…).

Since 2014, she has been a full-time educational supervisor at the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Department of Materials, Textiles and Chemical Process Engineering, where she is responsible for practicals and theoretical exercises within the analytical and instrumental learning line in the training of Chemical Engineering Technology students.

Post-doctoral Researchers

Dhanjay Sharma dhanjay.sharma@ugent.be

Dhanjay Sharma is a postdoctoral researcher working on a research project to design and synthesis of nanozeolites, and novel hybrid/oxide structures for sustainable production of butadiene from non-fossil butanediols by dehydration. He got his Master’s degree in Chemistry at DDU Gorakhpur University (India) in 2012 and began working on a project in 2013 in the Chemistry Department, IIT Kanpur, in catalysis.

In 2015, he started working on his Ph.D. in the Department of Chemistry at University of Delhi. His doctoral research focused on the synthesis of shape, size, and morphology controlled nanoparticles, zeolites, layered double hydroxides, and development of new synthetic approaches to catalytically active functionalized nanomaterials for various organic transformations: hydroformylation of olefins, oxidation of alcohols, hydroisomerization of 1-octene and bi-functional electrocatalyst in water splitting reactions. After his Ph.D., he gained experience in the crude menthol oil industry. In 2022, he started his postdoc in the INCAT research group on the GREEN-B2B (Acid Catalyzed Production of Green Butadiene from Butanediols) project.

Arno de Reviere arno.dereviere@ugent.be

Arno de Reviere obtained his PhD in January 2024, after six years of research at both the Laboratory for Chemical Technology and Industrial Catalysis and Adsorption Technology research groups. His PhD focused on zeolite-catalyzed bio-alcohol dehydration to olefins, where he combined zeolite synthesis, modification, characterization and catalytic testing with theoretical studies in an effort to rationalize zeolite catalyst design. During his doctoral studies, Arno gained international experience through a research stay at the Laboratory for Catalysis and Spectroscopy under the supervision of prof. Jean-Pierre Gilson and dr. Valentin Valtchev, where he gained expertise in zeolite crystal engineering. Next to his research, Arno was actively involved in the education of Chemical Engineering Technology students, where he introduced new practical exercises on zeolite-catalyzed alkylation reactions and alcohol dehydration to the curriculum. One of these new exercises has since then been published in an educational journal for chemical engineers as 'an example of good practices'.