Organising committee

The members of the organizing committee are:

Jouke Dykstra (chairman)
PhD student “Membrane Capacitive Deionization” affiliated to Wetsus and Wageningen University 

Since September 2013 I am a PhD student at Wetsus, working on a novel technique, Membrane Capacitive Deionization, for the desalination of brackish water. Upon applying a potential difference over two porous carbon electrodes, results in the adsorption of salt from a brackish water stream, and thus, in the production of potable water. Since electrochemical engineering is one of the most important aspects of my PhD research, I feel very motivated to co-organize this summer school. Besides the interesting lecturers we are inviting, a great social program is very important as well, and we are working hard on that as well! Hope to see you in June 2015 and have an interesting and joyful time with you!

Sam Molenaar (secretary)
PhD student “Microbial Electrolysis Cells” affiliated to Wetsus and Wageningen University

Please to meet you! Since 2012 I’m conducting PhD research at Wetsus focusing on what is called bioelectrochemical systems – marvelous little human created ecosystems in which bacteria either oxidize or reduce (bio)chemicals at the surface of an electron conducting matrix. Although the foreseen applications of these systems stretch far and wide, optimization problems are widespread as well. I’m looking at the effect of operational parameters of these reactors on the occurrence of unwished side reactions and their effect on biofilm composition. Given my original background – marine biology – this required and still requires me a lot of new knowledge to master and apply, especially in the field of electrochemical engineering. It is therefore with great interest that I took up the opportunity to go and join organizing a summer school on such matter!

Pau Rodenas Motos (secretary and coordinator social program)
PhD student “Bioelectrochemical metal recovery” affiliated to Wetsus and Wageningen University 

I am working on BioElectroMET project since October 2012. Inside these European project founded by 7th Framework program, I am studying the metal recovery efficiency, the quality of the product and the optimization for the scale-up. To recover heavy metals from waste waters, we are using Bioelectrochemical cells that degrade organic matter from the waste water in the anode and provide the potential to drive the metal removal on the cathode. As researcher working in electrochemistry is an honour for me co-organize the ESSEE2015 and contribute organizing workshops, lectures, and a nice social program. Hope to see you soon in June 2015.

Jan Willem van Egmond (treasurer)
PhD student “Blue Energy” affiliated to Wetsus and Wageningen University

Currently I am doing a PhD on salinity gradient batteries to store large amounts of electricity in a cheap, sustainable and environmental friendly way. I have done my master Biosystems Engineering at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Before I started as a PhD at Wetsus I already did an internship here and worked with ultrasound and crystallization. I am highly interested in electrochemical engineering and I am looking forward to learn more about our exciting field of work!

Tim Donkers (coordinator participants and website)
PhD student “Capacitive bio-anodes in Microbial Fuel Cells” affiliated to Wetsus and Wageningen University 

I started my PhD around 9 months ago focusing on capacitive bio-anodes in Microbial Fuel Cell systems. The proof of concept of a fluidized bed MFC has shown some promising results. Technical challenges are especially linked to optimization of the architectural design and operational parameters such as particle loading rate, charge-discharge time and anode discharge potential. Besides that, I am also part of the organizing committee of ESSEE2015. So far it is really great to work together with my great colleagues on something cool like this! I hope to see you around in June 2015 to discuss some electrochemical engineering challenges!

Mariana Rodriguez (coordinator logistics)
PhD student “Bio-electrochemically assisted recovery of nutrients from urine” affiliated to Wetsus and Wageningen University 

My PhD project started in November 2012. It focuses on developing and evaluating an innovative and energy-efficient bio-electrochemical system that allows for the simultaneous recovery of valuable nutrients and energy from urine. The project is part of a bigger collaborative project called ValuefromUrine. As working with bio-electrochemical systems is now part of my everyday life, I thought it would be very interesting to take part in the organization of this Summer School. I hope you enjoy it!

Jordi Moreno (coordinator website and social program)
PhD student “Blue Energy: Fouling Management and Stack Design for Reverse electrodialysis” affiliated to Wetsus and University of Twente

Since October 2013 I am a PhD candidate at Wetsus, working in the Blue energy topic. Blue energy, also known as Salinity gradient power, is the energy released from mixing seawater and river water and can be captured by reverse electrodialysis (RED) using ion exchange membranes. However, the use of natural feeds has brought new challenges to the on-going research. Fouling and the effect of multivalent ions present in natural feed waters can reduce the obtainable power density. The aim of my investigation is to find new antifouling strategies to overcome this limitations (For more information please go to http://www.utwente.nl/tnw/mtg/people/phd/Moreno/).

Victor Torres Serrano (coordinator PR)
PhD student affiliated to Wetsus and TU Delft

I received my MsC in Chemical Engineering from the University of Alicante, in Spain, and afterwards I moved to TU Delft for one year internship. From April 2014 I work at Wesus, associated to TU Delft, as PhD student in the Concentrates theme. The topic of my research is related with removal and recycling antiscalants, containing phosphorus, from concentrates produced in water treatments. Moreover my work will also focus on fundamentals aspects of crystallization of scaling salts under influence of antiscalants and impurities. Even when Electrochemical Engineering is a bit out of my research topic, I am really glad to be part of the ESSEE2015 Organising Committee and work together with these excellent people. I expect to go deeply into Electrochemical Engineering from widely recognized professors coming to the next ESSEE2015 and to enjoy the social programme we are preparing for all the participants. I hope to see all of you next June 2015 in Leeuwarden.

Jorrit Hillebrand (coordinator logistics)
PhD student affiliated to Wetsus and TU Delft

After doing my Bachelor in “Chemistry”, I continued with the Master “Molecular Chemistry” at the University of Groningen (the Netherlands). In July 2014 I started my PhD at Wetsus on the topic “Novel sensor platform for monitoring water composition through polymer absorption layers and dielectric spectroscopy” in collaboration with the Delft University of Technology. I am happy to join the ESSEE2015 committee to organize a nice, wonderful and educational Summer School!

Victor, Jorrit, Mariana, Tim, Pau, Sam, Jordi, Jouke and Jan-Willem