PhD student on the Bioprocess Engineering group (Faculty of Applied Sciences): "Downstream Process Development for Bio-based Production of Polyphenols".This work involved the investigation of different unit operations for the purification of polyphenols from a fermentation both of Corynebacterium glutamicum. Those included:● Liquid-liquid extraction● Chromatography using reverse-phase resins (including possible integration with fermentation)● Preferential CrystallizationDuring this thesis:● Thermodynamic models (e.g., UNIFAC, NRTL-SAC) were used in order to model equilibrium properties of polyphenols.● Mechanistic models describing chromatography and crystallization were used in order to solve optimal control problems.● Different process configurations were optimized and evaluated using Aspen Plus Aspen Chromatography.

One is studying the potential of the heterotrophic microalgae Chlorella protothecoides for the production of biogas, by anaerobic digestion. Reactors are performed in batch, containing either the complete hetrotrophic microalgae or its residue, after lipid extraction.

Thermodynamical study of systems containing fluorinated and semifluorinated molecules. This work involved not only experimental work, but also molecular simulation studies using Towhee (Monte Carlo simulations) and Gromacs (molecular dynamics).