Today in Frankfurt Prof. Joachim Groß from the Institute of Technical Thermodynamics and Thermal Process Technology (Institut für Technische Thermodynamik und Thermische Verfahrenstechnik) at the University of Stuttgart was awarded the DECHEMA Prize from the Max-Buchner Research Foundation with an endowment of 20,000 Euros for his excellent research work on the thermo-dynamics of mixtures. Thanks to his findings it is possible for process engineers to calculate features of mixtures of substances with polar interactions or to calculate them in advance at the critical point. This is an important prerequisite in order to predict the behaviour of new or modified materials such as, for example, nano-materials. Applications can be found in numerous sectors, for example in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, in the life sciences and in biotechnology.
The work of Joachim Groß is based on molecular thermodynamics. The research leader in the excellence cluster Simulation Technology (SimTech) at the University of Stuttgart investigated, among other things, the interactions of macro molecules, ionic, associating and polar components. On this basis he succeeded in describing mixtures of substances and calculating their features in advance. In the framework of his doctorate he developed jointly with Prof. Wolfgang Arlt (Erlangen) and Prof. Gabriele Sadowski (Dortmund) the equation of state PC-SAFT (Perturbed-Chain-Statistical Associating Fluid Theory). He has also developed models for special conditions such as mixtures of substances at the critical point. In so doing Joachim Groß always has an eye to the application: in this respect a method can be attributed to him with the help of which processes and the materials contained therein can be optimised simultaneously in a mathematical way. He has also developed simulations for separation processes and membrane processes.
Joachim Groß, born in Stuttgart in 1970, studied chemical process engineering at the Technical University of Berlin and obtained his doctorate there through equations of state of simple, associated and macro molecular substances. From 2000 until 2004 he worked at BASF in Ludwigshafen in process development. After a stay as an associate professor and professor at the Technical University of Delft, to which he is still associated today as a lecturer, he took over the chair for technical thermodynamics and thermal process engineering at the University of Stuttgart in January 2010. Along with the excellence cluster SimTech he is involved there in a special research field as well as a trans-regional special research field of the German Research Association (DFG). He is a member on the board of trustees of several specialist journals.
The DECHEMA Prize from the Max-Buchner Research Foundation has been awarded annually since 1951. This prize honours excellent research work from the fields of technical chemistry, process engineering, biotechnology and chemical apparatus technology. Special work performed by young researchers is considered for this. The work should be of underlying importance and show a close interrelation of research and practical application.
Your contact persons:
Prof. Joachim Groß, University of Stuttgart, Institute of Technical Thermodynamics and
Thermal Process Engineering, tel. 0711/685-66103, email: gross (at) itt.uni-stuttgart.de
Andrea Mayer-Grenu, University of Stuttgart, Department University Communication, Tel.
0711/685-82176, email: andrea.mayer-grenu (at) hkom.uni-stuttgart.de
