Dr. Michael Harasek


Vienna University of Technology, Institute of Chemical Engineering Getreidemarkt 9/166, A-1060 Vienna, Austria
Email:  michael.harasek@tuwien.ac.at

 

Dr. Michael Harasek is assistant professor at the Vienna University of Technology, he received his PhD in chemical engineering from the same university. As head of the research group “Thermal Process Engineering - Computational Fluid Dynamics” he guides a team of fourteen PhD students and post-docs at the Institute of Chemical Engineering.
For more than twenty years, he has been working on the design of new processes and technologies in the process industries and related fields. A major part of his research work is dedicated to the development of environmentally friendly technologies focussing on membrane processes and the integration of renewable energy pathways, e.g. the production of biofuels, and the production and upgrading of biogas.
With his group, he is partner in numerous national and international research projects, currently he also coordinates a FP7-SME project. Michael Harasek works also on the application of experimental and computational fluid dynamics in many fields of chemical engineering for process analysis and optimization. He is author or co-author of more than 50 publications and 7 patents.

Plenary Talk on

Renewable Energy Concepts - Integrated Pathways from Biomass to Energy, Fuels and Chemicals

Increasing use of renewable energy from biomass has become an important contribution to the transition of energy supply systems towards more sustainability. Among other renewable energy sources such as wind, hydropower and photovoltaics, biomass continues to play an important role in this field. However, biomass is more than energy – research and development activities in the last years have led to successful demonstrations of exciting routes for the integrated production of fuels and chemicals in addition to energy. In this presentation, the author will give an overview about these activities at the Institute of Chemical Engineering of Vienna University of Technology addressing biomass gasification, methanation, Fischer-Tropsch synthesis as well as biogas upgrading and the production of renewable hydrogen through various pathways.