
16 November 2018
Prestigious new research projects
Luleå University of Technology receives close to SEK 17 million in research funds from the Swedish Research Council to five different projects, including non-flammable and environmentally friendly batteries for electric vehicles and the conversion of carbon dioxide into chemicals.
The Division of Chemical Engineering was very successful and managed to get funding for all their research groups in Biochemical and Chemical Process Engineering, Chemistry of Interfaces and Chemical Technology.
"This is great news for our research groups" says Paul Christakopoulos with a smile, Professor in Biochemical Process Engineering. His research project is about printing living organisms, microbes, in a 3D printer to create bioelectrodes. With this technology we can produce chemicals from carbon dioxide using electricity.
"This is the 4th project in this hot topic that we are getting in sequence (there are also ongoing projects funded from HORIZON2020, FORMAS, VR", says Paul Christakopoulos.
Farid Akhtar, Associate Professor in Engineering Materials, and Giulio Antonini, Visiting Professor in Industrial Electronics / EISLAB, also received funds from the Swedish Research Council.
Farid Akhtar's project will facilitate the use and storage of biogas as fuel using nanotechnology.
Giulio Antonini's project has the ambition to streamline today's power electronics system with new technology called wide bandgap (WBG). The new WBG power units work with higher frequencies and temperatures than previous generations.
"I saw my name in the list of granted applications last week, it was the best day ever. Getting this project from the Swedish Research Council has motivated me to work even harder than before", says Faiz Ullah Shah, Associate Professor in Chemistry of Interfaces. His projekt aims to develop new non-flammable and environmentally friendly batteries for electric vehicles.
"Our research group in Chemical Technology is in the international research front on ultra thin zeolite membranes for gas separations. Preliminary work has now shown that the transport of carbon dioxide, hydrogen and methane through our membranes is desorption limited and not diffusion limited as believed earlier. It is a very important discovery, with great scientific and practical significance and this will be further studied in the project. Our work may lead to improved processes in chemical industry for e.g. purification of bio gas and natural gas", says Jonas Hedlund, professor in Chemical Technology.
"It is associated with a lot of prestige to get funding from the Swedish Research Council so this means lots for our Department", says Charlotta Johansson, Head of The Department of Civil, Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering, where the Division of Chemical Engineering are located.
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