In the midst of the campaign against global warming, switching to renewable energy sources is no longer a choice but a necessity. We talked to the Dutch academician, Dr Willibrordus Petrus Maria van Swaaij from the University of Twente about the biggest challenges in the field of green energy in the upcoming period and whether “zero emissions” are an achievable goal.
Professor van Swaaij is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAV), ACTI Netherlands Academy of Technology and Innovation and the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities. As a Professor of chemical engineering, he has managed numerous studies in the field of multiphase reactors, the development of new reactors and energy conversion technologies. Since the late 1990’s, he has been working on researching biomass as a significant source of renewable and sustainable energy. Recently, he was a guest at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering where he gave a highly attended lecture on the topic of thermochemical conversion of biomass, entitled “Thermochemical conversion of Biomass – Experiences and Views of a Chemical Reaction Engineer”.