We were honored to have the opportunity to sponsor the 2021 EFCE Excellence Award in Process Intensification! The recipient of this award was Dr. Evangelos Delikonstantis whose Ph.D. work, titled “Plasma-Assisted Non-Oxidative Methane Coupling to Olefins”, looked into how methane can be converted to ethylene using a nanosecond pulsed plasma. Dr. Kirschneck, who presented the award, and Dr. van Gerven, who is the chairman of the working party “Process Intensification”, were very interested in Dr. Delikonstantis’ subsequent presentation. He noted that beyond the non-oxidative methane coupling to ethylene, the findings demonstrate the potential of nanosecond pulsed plasma for catalysis and should pave the way to other important chemical conversion reactions. If powered by renewable electricity, the process could pave the way for novel low-carbon ethylene production processes, with an estimated carbon footprint of 1.3kg of CO2-equivalent per kilogram of ethylene.
More infos on this outstanding work in this press release.