Laboratory for Transport Processes and Reactions LTR

Prof. Philipp Rudolf von Rohr

The LTR has been founded in 1992 within the Institute of Process Engineering. Originally the LTR worked on processes in the area of environmental applications with fundamental research on catalytic wet oxidation processes. The technology has been transferred to industry and is successfully implemented in several applications. On biological off gas treatment we developed a new process based on rotating discs covered with biofilms. Since 1996 the LTR focuses mainly on three areas: High pressure processes (up to supercritical pressures) Fundamentals in transport phenomena, and Plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition processes (see figure).

Coating unit, batch gas-solid reactor Plasma CVD for particles (50 – 500 µm)

Highlights of the last 10 years are the fluidized bed plasma enhanced reaction technology, the fundamental work on flows over defined waves, the supercritical water oxidation with a hydrothermal flame and the catalytic low pressure wet oxidation process. Cooperations with many universities within Europe and USA show the broad interest in the LTR work as for example with MIT in Cambridge, USA and Technical University Delft, Netherlands. Support to LTR is been given equally from industry and academia. Over 20 doctoral students have already finished their thesis in the LTR and are working successfully in academia and industry. Furthermore, over 70 diploma students have completed their diploma thesis and over 110 semester projects were conducted in the LTR.

SiC particles in a Ni-Alloy matrix; left: unprotected, right: coated with 1 µm Al2O3 diffusion barrier