Syngaschem BV – 5th Anniversary

Syngaschem BV was established in May 2013 to support the development of SynCat@Beijing, and to set up its own research facility. Five years later both laboratories, in Beijing and Eindhoven, are in full swing. To celebrate, Syngaschem sponsors several scientific conferences this year, see the special advertisement for this purpose.

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Why Syngaschem BV?
In Jan 2013 Profs Yong-Wang Li, General Manager of Synfuels China Technology in Beijing-Huairou and Hans Niemantsverdriet, Professor at the Eindhoven University of Technology, decided to join forces and build a new internationally oriented laboratory for fundamental research on catalysis for synthesis gas technology, SynCat@Beijing, with a small branch in Eindhoven.

Syngaschem BV has been established as a Dutch enterprise to support recruitment of international staff and acquisition of instrumentation for SynCat@Beijing. Syngaschem also runs a small laboratory under the name SynCat@DIFFER in Eindhoven, which started at TU/e but since two years is housed at the national Dutch Institute for Fundamental Research and runs fundamental research projects related to synthesis gas utilization and generation.

Syngaschem’s Activities
Five years after the start, both SynCat laboratories at Beijing and Eindhoven are in full swing and Syngaschem BV is proud on several achievements in its first 5 years:

  • A laboratory staffed by three senior research scientists (Dr Kees-Jan Weststrate – Fischer-Tropsch surface chemistry; Dr Hans Fredriksson, syngas and hydrogen; Dr Foteini Sapountzi, electrolysis of water). They guide graduate students and postdocs, and collaborate with scientists of SynCat@Beijing, the DIFFER Institute, and universities in Europe and South Africa;
  • Substantial funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 program, and a jointly financed CHIPP project together with DIFFER, the TU/e and the Netherlands Organization for Research (NWO), in addition to its base funding from Synfuels China;
  • 24 scientific publications based on research initiated by Syngaschem BV, and another 17 in collaboration with SynCat@Beijing and universities worldwide, in highly ranked journals such as ACS Catalysis, Journal of Catalysis, Catalysis Today, ChemCatChem, JACS, Angewandte Chemie, Nature Communications, Surface Science, The International Journal of Hydrogen Technology, the Journal of Physical Chemistry, etc.
  • A comprehensive review on materials for water electrolysis in Progress in Energy and Combustion Science 58 (2017) 1-35 (freely available by open access!)
  • About 35 presentations – several on invitation – by Syngaschem staff in international conferences; about 25 seminars at Summer schools and International Universities.
  • Syngaschem BV also offers international short courses in scientific leadership development (see www.syncatacademy.com). In December 2017 our book “Scientific Leadership,” by Jan-Karel Felderhof and Hans Niemantsverdriet, appeared with DeGruyter, Berlin (price € 29,95).

For the future, Syngaschem BV likes to position itself as an attractive partner for joint projects (with SynCat@Beijing, but also in European and international research programs), contract research, or for short courses in catalysis, and in scientific leadership development.

Published on: March 2, 2018