Theme of the Dies Natalis celebration 2019 is Climate Action
In our future energy system, electricity derived from solar panels and wind turbines, and heat derived from geothermal wells, heat pumps, solar collectors and urban surfaces will constitute cheap and abundant sources of carbon-free energy for our built environment and for our industries.
From these renewable sources we need to produce fuels, chemicals, and heat. However, given the intermittency of wind and solar, and given the dynamics of the subsequent value chains, high efficiency conversion and storage is imperative for the security of supply. Large-scale and long-term storage of electricity from solar and wind sources through conversion into molecules with a high energy density, is a key ingredient for a carbon-neutral yet economically viable future.
The TU Delft Energy Initiative is well equipped to contribute to solving these challenges through its campus-wide energy programmes. In particular the e-Refinery programme, addressing industrial energy and carbon reduction, and the Urban Energy programme, working towards a carbon-neutral built environment.
The e-Refinery programme addresses direct electro-synthesis of fuels and chemicals at all system levels: from nano-scale materials and catalysts, to reactors and devices, and to plants and system integration. Only such multi-level system approach will accelerate the electrification of the manufacturing of such fuels, chemicals and materials in a (cost) efficient manner. Given the Dutch strategic position in the international chemical, renewable energy and transport sectors, the regional embedding of Delft in one of the largest chemical clusters and innovation centers, and the wide ranges of expertise available at our campus, the TU Delft must be a leading force towards industrial scale ‘e-Refinery’ systems to convert electricity into molecular bonds.
On the occasion of the Dies Natalis celebration, TU Delft organises a symposium on Climate Action. You are all invited. Please register here.
Two honorary doctorates will be awarded on the occasion of the 177th Dies Natalis.
Professor Mercedes Maroto-Valer,
Heriot-Watt University, United Kingdom.
Assistant Deputy Principal (Research and Innovation) Director of the Energy Academy Director of the Centre for Innovation in Carbon Capture and Storage (CICCS).
She is the first Robert Buchan Chair in Sustainable Energy Engineering at Heriot-Watt University. She has served as the Head of the Institute for Mechanical, Processing and Energy Engineering (School of Engineering and Physical Sciences) and leads the pan-University Energy Academy. She is also Director of the EPSRC funded Centre for Innovation in Carbon Capture and Storage (CICCS). She is a member of the Directorate of the Scottish Carbon Capture and Storage (SCCS).
Her outstanding contributions, publication record and service to the chemical sciences and energy engineering have been recognised with numerous international prizes and awards and she has recently een awarded a prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Award.
Søren Hermansen
Samsø Energy Academy, Adjunct professor Aalborg university, Denmark.
Hermansen is the director of Samsø Energy Academy and the head of the Samsø renewable energy island project, which he has been working on for 10 years. His mission is to demonstrate that it is possible to create a society which is self-sufficient and 100% based on renewable energy.
In 2008, Søren Hermansen was named one of the 'Heroes of the Environment' by Time Magazine. And in 2009 he was awarded the Gothenborg Award - the Nobel prize of the environment. Other and Awards include the Energy Globe 2008 and Eurosolar 2002 Søren Hermansen is Adjunct Professor at Aalborg Universitet.