Alexander Klimek und Igor Gamm receive VDI Funding Awards 2024

The award-winning topics are: Sustainable ammonia production from renewable energy resources and thermal crystallization processes for separating enantiomers

In 2024, the VDI Magdeburg District Association once again honored young scientists from the Max Planck Institute for their outstanding scientific work. Alexander Klimek was honored for his master's thesis on sustainable ammonia production from renewable energy resources. Igor Gamm received the award for his master's thesis on thermal crystallization processes for the separation of enantiomers.

Alexander Klimek, doctoral student in the Process Engineering Research Group, focused his master's thesis on the computer-aided optimal design and operation of green, sustainable ammonia plants. He identified key technical and economic influencing factors. He was awarded one of the Funding Awards from the Association of German Engineers (VDI) - Magdeburg Regional Association for his research work.

This work was supervised by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Kai Sundmacher, Director and Head of the Process Engineering Department, and M.Sc. Tibor Svitnič, scientist in the Process Engineering Research Group at the Max Planck Institute in Magdeburg.

Alexander Klimek earned his bachelor's degree in 2021 and his master's degree in industrial engineering for process and energy technology in 2023 from Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg.

Alexander Klimek's research focuses on large-scale superstructure optimization for the production of chemicals (e.g., aviation fuels, ammonia) from renewable raw materials, optimization with embedded machine learning models (e.g., neural networks), and optimization under uncertainty (stochastic programming, robust optimization).

Igor Gamm, research assistant at the Chair of Chemical Process Engineering at Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, was also honoured with the Funding Award from the Association of German Engineers (VDI) - Magdeburg Regional Association for his master's thesis on “The suitability of enantioselective fluidized bed crystallization for the separation of chiral substance systems with needle-shaped crystal morphology.”

This work was supervised by Jonathan Gänsch, researcher in the Physical-Chemical Fundamentals of Process Engineering research group. The first reviewer was Associate Professor Dr. Heike Lorenz, Project Manager Crystallization, and the second reviewer was Professor Andreas Seidel-Morgenstern, Emeritus Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute in Magdeburg.