Topic: Catalytic Processes Development for Biorefineries on the REALCAT platform Using Advanced High-Throughput Technologies
Speaker: Professor Sébastien PAUL
Time: Thursday, June 6, 2024, 10:00-11:00 a.m.
Venue: Room 310, No. 2 Teaching Building, Xueyuan Road Campus
Abstract：
In this seminar, the REALCAT platform, created and headed by Prof. Sébastien PAUL is introduced. REALCAT (French acronym standing for ‘Advanced High-Throughput Technologies Platform for Biorefineries Catalysts Design’) is a highly integrated platform devoted to the acceleration of innovation in all the fields of catalysis with an emphasis on emergent biorefinery catalytic processes. In this extremely competitive field, REALCAT consists in a versatile High-Throughput Technologies (HTT) platform devoted to innovation in catalysts. The REALCAT platform, representing a more than 11 M€ (roughly 90 M¥) funding from the French Government, is a complete, unique, and top-level HTT workflow including (i) robots for the automated synthesis of catalysts and novel biocatalysts, (ii) rapid characterization tools and (iii) a series of versatile parallel continuous and batch reactors - for gas phase, liquid phase or three phases reactions - combined with ultra-fast analytical tools at the top of the state-of-the-art for the analysis of the products in the reactors effluents. In this talk, some recent results obtained by our team on REALCAT will be presented. It will be shown that using the HTT tools of the REALCAT platform permitted to shorten by at least a factor of 10 the time needed for optimizing a catalytic process. The new concept of digital catalysis developed by Prof Paul’s group which combines chemistry, HTT and data sciences will be introduced.
About the Speaker:
Sébastien PAUL is Full Professor at Centrale Lille, a generalist engineer school in the North of France, where he was the head of the Sciences of the Matter Department between 2009 and 2016. From 2019 to 2023, he was Director of Innovation and Valorisation of Centrale Lille. After receiving his PhD in Chemical Engineering at the University of Technology of Compiègne, France (1996), he was hired by Centrale Lille as Assistant Professor (1998). From 2004 to 2009 he was at the head of the Chemical Engineering Department, which then became the Sciences of the Matter Department. In 2009, he was nominated Associate Professor and, in 2011, Full Professor. His research work is carried out in the Unité de Catalyse et Chimie du Solide (UCCS - UMR CNRS 8181), France. More particularly, he is a member of the VAALBIO group (standing for VAlorization of ALkanes and BIOmass) that he led from 2016 to 2020. Sébastien PAUL is also the head of the REALCAT platform (‘Advanced High-Throughput Technologies Platform for Biorefineries Catalysts Design'), of the PTICM meta-platform (Plateforme Technologique d'Ingénieurie Chimie Matériaux) and the former head of the CNRS French-Japanese International Associate Lab NANOXCAT (2018-2022). He has founded the start-up company TEAMCAT SOLUTIONS in 2015. He is involved in the development of a large variety of catalytic processes starting from compounds issued from biomass or hydrocarbons in the frame of academic and industrial collaborations. He has supervised or co-supervised 32 PhD and 27 post-docs, and is the co-author of 138 scientific articles (hindex=34-4400 citations), 3 book chapters, 19 patents, and more than 140 oral communications.
Sino-French Engineer School / School of General Engineering
