Wim van Swaaij studied chemical engineering sciences and obtained his PhD at the Technical University in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. He has over 40 years of experience in industrial and academic R&D on processes including biomass conversion. He is a consultant for several multinational firms such as Shell, DSM, Solvay Duphar and BASF. He is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences. His awards and honors include the “Grand Prix du Génie des Procédés” of the French Academy of Sciences; doctor honoris causa by the Université de Nancy, France; the Royal Dutch Shell Prize; and the Golden Tesla medal for energy research. He is Knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion.
Sascha Kersten obtained his MSc degree in chemical engineering from the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and a PhD on biomass gasification in circulating fluidized beds from the University of Twente under the guidance of Prof. Van Swaaij. He began his career at the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands, where he worked on modeling of dynamic systems and later on biomass conversions. Since 2003 he is working at the University of Twente and is currently the chair of the Sustainable Process Technology Group of the university. He is working on energy efficient separations, CO2 capture and utilization, water purification, recovery/recycling of scarce elements, and thermochemical conversions of biomass into fuels, chemicals and materials.
Wolfgang Palz is a German physicist. For more than half a century, he has been a global leader of the development of solar energy and other renewables. As an official of the European Commission in Brussels, he was the manager of PV development in Europe for 20 years. From 2000 to 2002, he was a member of an “Enquête Commission” of the German Parliament on the German energy perspective on the horizon 2050. Later, he was a consultant for the EU Commission on PV programmes for the underprivileged in Latin America. Dr. Palz has received numerous awards, including the International Solar Energy Society (ISES) Global Leadership Award in Advancing Solar Energy Policy (2011). He is a bearer of an Order of Merit of the German Republic.
