Bubble columns are the working horses of the chemical, petrochemical and pharmaceutical industry with large environmental footprints. A proper optimization of such reactors can contribute to gross savings in energy consumption and catalyst materials and to reductions of greenhouse gas emissions.

In the last few years, a growing interest of the chemical industry in concepts for process intensification in multi-phase reactors has been observed. Our research investigates various possibilities to intensify processes in multi-phase reactors.

Thermal se­paration processes such as rectification, distillation, absorption, desorption and extraction are central unit operations in chemical process industries. The vapor-liquid se­paration processes are ­very energy-intensive, since they involve multiple sequences of evaporation and condensation.

Removal and treatment of municipal and industrial waste water is of great importance to reduce pollution and eutrophication of natural watercourses and is part of a sustainable use of water resources.

In the froth flotation process the valuable hydrophobic particles attach to the fluidic interface of rising bubbles while the undesired hydrophilic particles settle down to eventually be discharged. A bet­ter understanding with the help of a three-phase flow model to simulate the particle capture and appropriate microscale experiments using the in-house optical process microscope could help to make the capture of hydrophobic mineral particles more efficient.

A sustainable society needs an energy use that is adapted energy production. As a key consumer, the chemical industry must adapt to use increasing amounts of renewable electricity.

A promising opportunity for the con­version of excess power into chemical energy carriers can be found in the decentralized production of methanol or longer-chain liquid hydrocarbons from carbon dioxide and electrolytic hydrogen, gained from intermittently regenerative energy sources.