The National Institute of Chemistry has 300 employees (31.12.2017), of which around 266 carry out research work in 12 departments and two infrastructure centers; 136 of these have doctorates of science degrees.
Department of Catalysis and Chemical Reaction Engineering is primarily invested in chemical (process) engineering, reactor and unit operation design and construction, as well as multi-scale process modelling. The Department topics foremost include carbon dioxide and natural gas conversion, hydrogen and fuel cell technologies, biomass valorisation to bio-based compounds, and (bio)pharmaceutical processes.
We are KI
My name is Blaž Likozar, and I am a senior research associate, assistant professor, and department head at the National Institute of Chemistry (NIC). I earned my PhD in Chemical Engineering in 2008 at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology. I have been a member of NIC since 2011, working as senior research fellow, assistant professor and department head in the field of chemical engineering (Department of Catalysis and Chemical Reaction Engineering); I am leading the programme “Chemical Reaction Engineering” as well as several research projects. My expertise lies (among others) in heterogeneous catalyst materials, modelling, simulation and optimization of process fluid mechanics, transport phenomena and chemical kinetics. In 2014–2015, I worked at the University of Delaware (Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation, Newark, Delaware, USA), as a Fulbright Program researcher in the field of chemical engineering. I have published over 110 original peer-reviewed scientific research papers and have the h-index of 19 (presently, 1370 citations).
Within CONVERGE NIC will participate in the Tasks within the WP1: Coordination and Dissemination (Task 1.4) (dissemination), the WP2: Pre-treatment (Tasks 2.1, 2.2 & 2.3) (catalyst material re-engineering), the WP4: Green Methanol Synthesis (Tasks 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 & 4.4) (multi-scale process modelling, optimisation & design), WP5: Socio-Techno-Economics (Tasks 5.6) (socio-economics), and WP6: Business Case and Supply Chain (Tasks 6.2, 6.4 & 6.6) (business case specifying).