Editorial

Welcome to the third ROMEO newsletter.

The beginning of 2017 has certainly been a very busy time for ROMEO! End of February, 3 meetings were held in Brussels and the “Third European Workshop on Membrane reactors: Membrane Reactors for Process Intensification” conference was organised early March in Verona. You can read more about these in this newsletter.

The coming months will also be hectic with the preparation of the first Review Report (Technical and Financial parts) during the next two months.

One goal of the bi-annual newsletter is to introduce the people behind the ROMEO project. In this issue, you can find out more about:

• Gilbert (Belgium) - Gilbert is the CEO of the European Membrane House.

• Reinhard (Austria) – Reinhard is the Biomass gasification systems area manager at BIOENERGY 2020+ GmbH.

• Jakob (Denmark) - Jakob is a PhD student at DTU, Technical University of Denmark.

Please feel free to contact us via our website (www.romeo-h2020.eu) should you have any questions or comments.

Enjoy your reading!

Prof. Robert FRANKE, Project Coordinator

Successful workshop on Membrane Reactors

On 9 and 10 March 2017, the Third European Workshop on Membrane Reactors took place in Italy. More than 85 people coming from all around Europe and from Russia, Philippines and Pakistan attended what proved to be a very productive and stimulating meeting.

There were 17 scientific presentations, 3 round tables, poster sessions and a company visit (ICI). The scientific presentations were given by both academics and industry representatives, on the following themes:

1.    Fundamentals of membrane reactors
2.    Process design and applications
3.    Industrial applications of Membrane Reactors

The Workshop was very successful in terms of attendance but also in terms of discussions and interactions between academia and industry. It was very stimulating to try to find a compromise between what the academia wants (basically study the more fundamental aspects of membrane reactors) and what the Industry wants (a reliable working system, even if not the best in terms of performance).

Read the full article here.

Key meetings in Brussels

On 22 and 23 February, the 3rd ROMEO progress meeting of ROMEO was organized in Brussels at the CFCIB (Chambre Française de Commerce et d’ Industrie de Belgique) – Avenue des Arts 8, jointly with the 1st External Advisory Board (EAB) and the 1st Review meeting (M18). The EMH and EVONIK were the organizers. These meetings allowed everyone to meet the new Project Officer, Dr Carmine Marzano, and EC appointed external reviewer, Prof. Annette Juhr, as well as the three external EAB members: Dr. Andreas Geisbauer from Clariant Produkte GmbH; Prof. dr. Freek Kapteijn – Catalysis Engineering – TU Delft; Mr. Herman Bottenberg – Zeton B.V

Undoubtedly, a lot has been done since the 2nd progress meeting in Copenhagen: the 3rd Progress meeting allowed partners to keep up to date with all of that. This has been also a good opportunity to plan the next actions. The preparation of the 1st Review Report (Technical and Financial parts) will be an important issue during the next two months.

Read the full article here.

Focus on Gilbert Rios

Gilbert is the CEO of the European Membrane House, Belgium

"The approach proposed by ROMEO is very similar to what had been done in another domain to create the concept of the iPhone: to put together various elements already existing to innovate with a new concept and new methodology applicable to a lot of situations."

Read the full interview here.

Focus on Reinhard Rauch

Reinhard is “Biomass gasification systems” area manager, BIOENERGY 2020+ GmbH, Austria

"ROMEO has an innovative approach of combining two steps into one, which will reduce investment and operation costs."

Read the full interview here.

Focus on Jakob Marinkovic

Jakob is a PhD candidate at DTU, Technical University of Denmark

"Being a researcher means uncovering the unknown and this is exactly what appeals to me. The ambiguity makes it challenging and exciting at the same time. Never stop being curious!"

Read the full interview here.