Our young researchers under supervision of David Kubička discussed their PhD topics with prof. Agustín Martinéz from Valencia. He is working for a long time with catalysis and biomass conversion at Instituto de Tecnología Química. He also performed opened lecture „Fundamental aspects of the ethylene oligomerization reaction on Ni-zeolite catalysts“.

In 2018, many international students were working on their student projects at our department as a part of their ERASMUS study. Some of them gained their first experience of working in the laboratory and basic knowledge of the subject, while others have extended their experience and gained new ones. However, each work involved practical tasks connected with the use of analytical methods or control of different types of reactors. All students actively participated in projects currently solving at the department. The universities they come from are located across Europe from Scotland (Matthew H.) and Spain (José P.) through Germany (Patrick S., Carlos M.), Croatia (Kristina M.), Italy (Hadi D.) to Turkey (Edanur B.). The main projects involving the Erasmus students were: hydrogenolysis of the esters for which a new, more environmentally friendly, catalyst is needed, hydrogenation of biooil for the production of biofuels and hydrogenation of triglycerides for green diesel production.

Examples of projects:

Hydrogenation of biooil from biomass pyrolysis

Stabilization of nickel based catalysts by metallic promoters for the hydrotreating of vegetable oils

Hydrogenolysis of dimethyl adipate over CuZnAl catalysts