Basic HTML Version
178
UCT RESEARCH REPORT 2012
DST/NRF Centre of
Excellence in Catalysis, c*change
The DST/NRF Centre of Excellence in Catalysis,
c*change, is hosted by the Centre for Catalysis Research
at the Department of Chemical Engineering. During
2012, the c*change team comprised 51 postgraduate
students (82% of them South African students, of whom
45% and 76% were female and black, respectively), 12
postdoctoral researchers, and 25 academics from 16
research groupings in 10 participating South African
higher-education institutions. A total of 21 projects were
funded during the course of 2012, of which 13 were multi-
institutional and/or inter-disciplinary ones. The centre
was also awarded a DST/NRF SARChI Chair in catalysis
Subsequent to its 2011 participation as a co-organiser of
the European Federation of Catalysis Societies Summer
School in the Netherlands, c*change has organised a
similar three-day Autumn School during 2012. The Autumn
School was followed by the c*change Syngas Convention.
Minerals Beneficiation
Professor Jean-Paul Franzidis obtained his PhD from
the Open University in the United Kingdom. He joined
the Department of Chemical Engineering at UCT in
1983. His research career has been in various aspects
of mineral (including coal) beneficiation, especially
flotation. In 1996 he moved to the University of
Queensland, Australia, to lead the world’s largest
collaborative mineral-processing research project, the
AMIRA P9 project, which received numerous awards for
both research and research methodology. His flotation
research led to the development of a steady-state
flotation circuit simulator, JKSimFloat, which has been
applied to over 150 flotation operations worldwide.
From 2003 to 2007 he was Chief Investigator of two
large Australian Research Council Linkage grants. In
2007 he returned to UCT to direct the newly formed
Minerals to Metals Signature Theme. He was awarded
the SARChI Chair in Minerals Beneficiation in 2008.
Bioprocess Engineering
Professor Sue Harrison of the Department of
Chemical Engineering holds the DST/NRF Research
Chair in Bioprocess Engineering and is the director
of the Centre for Bioprocess Engineering Research
(CeBER). Her research interests include bioprocess
engineering spanning bacterial, fungal, archael and algal
bioprocesses with application in biohydrometallurgy,
acid mine drainage prevention, maximising resource
productivity, wastewater biorefineries, bioenergy
products, biocommodities from wastes, fine chemicals,
neutraceuticals and expression of niche peptides and
proteins. Professor Harrison has a strong interest in
minimising the environmental burden associated with
processes. Components of research involving clean
products and processes and bioremediation processes
are currently being focused explicitly around sustainable
process engineering to complement a teaching interest
in sustainable development in process industries.
DST/NRF
Centres of Excellence
DST/NRF SARChI Chairs
associated with this theme
Professor Jean-Paul Franzidis