Transport in Porous Media
Welcome to our research group!
The main focus of our research is the development of efficient and sustainable material conversion processes to achieve optimized product quality with superior properties.
For this purpose, we develop advanced processes and methodologies that enable defossilization and process intensification. One prominent example is the electrification of process heat supply based on microwave heating, which can be employed for low-temperature processes, e.g. freeze- and convection drying, as well as for high-temperature processes such as pyrolysis of biomass or plastics.
Our work builds on a deep understanding of the relevant physical mechanisms, which is achieved by the development of advanced mathematical models. These models are in most cases aimed to link the macroscopic structure-transport correlations with pore-scale transport phenomena. Examples for this are the drying of porous media, the transport of heat and fluids through porous transport layers that are, e.g., used in water electrolyzers or fuel cells, as well as the transport of nutrients and products through biofilms on solid carriers.
Our projects are embedded into the research alliances
- Research Center Dynamic Systems (CDS),
- IMPRS for Systems and Process Engineering for a Sustainable Chemical Production,
- CRC/TRR 287 BULK-REACTION, and
- Research Cluster SmartProSys.
