"Electrochemical processes are essential in the transition of our fossil fuel based economy to an economy that is based on renewable electricity."

Thijs de Groot has a broad chemical engineering knowledge, especially in process design, physical properties and separation science. In his industrial career he has led projects on the production of sustainable methanol (from carbon dioxide and hydrogen), the production of organic carbonates and the capture of carbon dioxide. These projects were typically carried out in combination with knowledge institutes and/or universities and resulted in six patent applications. In a more recent project of AkzoNobel and TU/e he has investigated spinning disk technology to radically reduce equipment size in the chlor-alkali business of AkzoNobel. This resulted in two patent applications and a number of publications.

In his academic research Thijs focuses on the intensification of electrochemical processes to enable operation at higher current densities and pressures. Achieving this would enable more cost effective electrochemical processes. The intensification requires a combination of different disciplines, including electrocatalysis, membrane science, chemical reactor engineering and computational fluid dynamics. Current work is focused on the evaluation of different cell designs, membranes, and high temperature and pressure operation for both chlor-alkali electrolysis and alkaline water electrolysis.

Thijs de Groot studied Chemical Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) where he obtained his master's degree cum laude in 2002. From 2003-2007 he performed PhD research at TU/e (Laboratory of Inorganic Chemistry and Catalysis) and Leiden University (Leiden Institute of Chemistry). In 2007 he obtained his doctorate with his thesis 'Electrochemistry of immobilized hemes and heme proteins' under supervision of Prof. Marc Koper. In 2007 he started working at AkzoNobel, first in Research, Development & Innovation (Arnhem, The Netherlands) and since 2011 at the Competence Team Technology of the Industrial Chemicals division (Amsterdam, The Netherlands). In 2016 De Groot was appointed part-time Assistant Professor in electrochemical engineering at the Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, research group Chemical Reactor Engineering.

• AkzoNobel Industrial Chemicals

Partners in (semi-)industry

• Institute of Sustainable Process Technology