Join Prof. Dr. André Bardow for another prominent lecture as part of the Department of Chemical Engineering’s popular Distinguished Seminar Series 2025.
Title:
To sustainability and beyond! A computer-aided story on a circular chemical industry
Abstract:
The current linear paradigm of producing chemicals is fundamentally unsustainable. To overcome this paradigm, the petrochemical industry must transition from its fossil-based foundation to one rooted in renewable resources for both energy and raw materials. Since most chemicals cannot be fully decarbonized in the literal sense, renewable carbon sources are essential to closing the carbon cycle.
This presentation highlights our recent advancements in developing a process systems engineering toolbox to enable a circular carbon economy. By utilizing biomass, CO₂, and waste recycling as feedstocks for chemical transformations, we establish circular carbon flows. To optimize these novel conversion processes, we incorporate the molecular design of solvents and catalysts directly into process design. Our design objectives encompass not only economic performance but also environmental impact, achieved through the development of methods to predict environmental profiles of molecules designed in silico.
The optimized processes are subsequently integrated into a bottom-up model of the carbon-based chemicals industry. This model allows for the evaluation of trade-offs and synergies between renewable carbon sources—biomass, CO₂, and waste recycling—guiding the identification of pathways toward a circular carbon industry. Ultimately, this approach provides actionable insights for advancing sustainable chemical production within planetary boundaries.
Speaker biography:
André Bardow has been full professor for Energy and Process Systems Engineering at ETH Zurich since 2020. Previously, he was a professor and head of the Institute of Technical Thermodynamics at RWTH Aachen University (2010-2020) and associate professor at TU Delft (2007-2010). He was also, in part-time, director of the Institute for Energy and Climate Research (IEK-10) at Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany (2017-2022). He was a visiting professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara (2015/16). He earned his Ph.D. degree at RWTH Aachen University.
Prof. Bardow is a fellow of the Royal Chemical Society and chaired the Technical Committee for Thermodynamics of VDI – The Association of German Engineers from 2016 to 2024. He received the Recent Innovative Contribution Award of the CAPE-Working Party of the European Federation of Chemical Engineering (EFCE) in 2019, and the PSE Model-Based Innovation (MBI) Prize by Process Systems Enterprise in 2018. He was the first recipient of the Covestro Science Award. He received the Arnold-Eucken-Award of the VDI-Society for Chemical Engineering (GVC) and was recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate in 2024 . He is the recipient of RWTH’s “FAMOS für Familie” award for family-friendly leadership, and of teaching awards at RWTH and TU Delft.
To book:
This event is by calendar invite only. If you are interested in attending, please email chemeng.comms@imperial.ac.uk.
Attendance type:
In-person encouraged.
Distinguished Seminar Series:
Find out more about the other seminars in this series.