With a background in biophysics Daniel got involved with membrane separation during his PhD in the Netherlands. He started his professional career in 2015 in Austria as an application technologist for Evonik’s SEPURAN® gas separation membranes and since 2020 he is heading the membrane technology group at Evonik’s process technology in Marl, Germany.
Dr. Roman Goy studied chemistry at the University of Jena and then stayed there to complete his PhD in the group of Prof. W. Weigand. He started his industrial career in 2015 as a postdoc at DSM Nutritional Products in Kaiseraugst (Switzerland) working on heterogenous catalysis. He is currently working as a Scientist at DSM with the focus on process research, especially in the areas of electrochemical conversions and membrane-related separations.
Robin Wilmshöfer is based in Gladbeck (Germany) and is working as sales engineer at BORSIG Membrane Technology. In 2019 he started at BORSIG in the field of Product Recovery dealing with monomer and hydrocarbon recovery units for petrochemical purge gases. From 2020, in addition, he is in charge of pervaporation and organic solvent nanofiltration units. His academical background is process engineering with a master’s degree in biochemical engineering by the Technical University of Dortmund.
Dr. Anita Buekenhoudt graduated in 1983 from the University of Antwerp as Master in Physics. In 1990 she obtained a PhD in Solid-State Physics at the University of Leuven. After a two-year post-doc, she joined the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO) in Mol. There she is active in the Business Unit Separation and Conversion Technology as project manager and head of the project team “Membranes in Chemistry”. Her work focuses on the development, characterization, and application of porous membranes in a broad range of challenging separations relevant for the chemical industry. For this purpose, her team develops new processes and if relevant, own innovative ceramic membranes. She has attracted and managed several national and international funded R&D projects, and industrial contract work on this topic. She is author of about 78 publications, 5 book chapters, > 70 international presentations, and inventor of 9 patents and 2 IP depots.
Dr.ing. Wim De Schepper works as senior researcher at the electrochemistry excellence center of VITO’s sustainable chemistry department. He is technical lead of the water electrolysis research activities focusing on technology development to produce green hydrogen. Wim has over 10 years of R&D experience in practical applications and modeling of membrane technology and electro-membrane processes.
Dr.ir. Kristien De Sitter graduated in 2002 as Master in BioScience Engineering at the Catholic University of Leuven and joined the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO) in the same year as a PhD student. After obtaining her PhD in BioScience Engineering (Catholic University of Leuven) in 2007 she continued working at VITO as a researcher in the Business Unit Separation and Conversion Technology. Whereas initially her focus was on industrial contract work on air treatment, since 10 years she is working in the domain of membrane processes with special emphasis on membrane contactor processes such as membrane distillation and membrane extraction. She is (co)author of approximately 25 peer-reviewed publications (>1100 citations, h-index 17) and 1 book chapter, and is inventor of 2 patent applications.
Dr. Heleen De Wever holds a PhD in Applied Biological Sciences. Since 2001, she has worked as a project manager at VITO. Her research focuses on 2 main topics. The first one is bioprocess intensification, which can often be achieved by integrating membrane technology with microbial and enzymatic conversions. A second topic is gas fermentations on C1 feedstocks, including CO2 and methanol.
Dr. Dominic Ormerod is a senior researcher in the Separation and Conversion Technology Unit at VITO (Belgium) which he joined in February 2012. After obtaining a PhD in organic chemistry in 1998 from UCLouvain (Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium) in the group of Prof. I.E. Markó, he moved to the department of chemical process development at Janssen Pharmaceutica (Beerse, Belgium), where he worked from 1998 until January 2012. He is the (co)author of over 50 publications, including patents, articles and reviews in several high impact journals. In his current role he leads research projects that can be both contract research for industrial partners or strategic basic research in collaboration with academic partners that are directed towards membrane assisted process intensification.
Dr. Sara Salvador Cob studied chemical engineering in the University of Valladolid (Spain). Then she pursued a PhD at KWR Water Research Institute and Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands). The main topic of her research was obtaining very high recovery in membrane filtration for drinking water production. After that, she worked at Abengoa, a Spanish multinational company in the green infrastructure, energy, and water sectors. Her key role was scientific researcher at the desalination department. As of May 2016, Sara works as researcher/project manager in the MESCH team at VITO, The Flemish Institute for Technological Research. She is involved in many different projects, public and private funding, related to process intensification via membrane applications for aqueous and organic solvent-based streams, relevant for the chemical industry.
Dr. Yamini Satyawali holds a PhD in Bioscience Engineering. She is a Research Scientist at VITO working towards the development of sustainable bioprocesses by combining biocatalytic transformation with membrane separations.
Dr. Pieter Vandezande holds a Master degree in Bioscience Engineering from the University of Leuven (Belgium) and a PhD from the Centre for Surface Science and Catalysis of the same university. In 2008, he joined VITO’s membrane team in the Separation and Conversion business unit, and his research has meanwhile been focused on advanced membrane separation processes in connection with sustainable chemistry, focusing particularly on challenging, molecular scale, often non-aqueous separations, with applications in diverse industries ranging from oil & gas, bulk and specialty chemicals to pharma, food and biorefinery. As a research scientist and project manager, his work comprises membrane process design and development from lab till pilot scale as well as more fundamental studies. Pieter has been coordinating and participating in various collaborative research projects at the national and international level, leading about 100 private contract research studies for industrial companies, and is (co-)author of 42 peer-reviewed SCI publications, 3 book chapters and 7 patent applications.
