Maaike Kroon’s PhD dissertation awarded by KNCV
01 April 2008 by TNWToday | M&CMaaike Kroon’s PhD dissertation has been selected by the Royal Netherlands Chemical Society (KNCV) as the best dissertation in the field of environmental chemistry and environmental technology of 2006/2007. There were 20 candidates competing for the prize, 15 of whom made it through to the final round.
A new and general type of process for the chemical industry is presented using ionic liquids and supercritical carbon dioxide as combined reaction and separation media. In this process, the carbon dioxide pressure controls the miscibility of reactants, products, catalyst and ionic liquid, enabling fast atom-efficient reactions in a homogenous phase as well as instantaneous product recovery in a biphasic system. High reaction and separation rates can be achieved compared with the conventional fully biphasic alternative.
When the ionic liquid/carbon dioxide process is applied to the production of 1600 ton/year Levodopa, a medicine against Parkinsonian disease, the energy consumption is reduced with 20,000 GJ per year and the waste generation is reduced with 4800 ton of methanol per year and 480 kg catalyst per year, resulting in a decrease in total operational costs of 11.3 million euros per year.
Maaike has been in Barcelona for the past year, working on two separate publications. On 1 May this year she will be going to Stanford (Palo Alto, California, USA) for two years. She is also about to receive her basic didactic qualification, officially qualifying her to teach at universities.
