On 25 November, René Rozendal won the Dow Energy Dissertation prize. He received this prize for his thesis, written under the auspices of Wageningen-Wetsus, on ‘Hydrogen Production through Biocatalyzed Electrolysis’. The prize – a certificate of recognition and 5,000 euros – was presented to him in the Hague by minister Van der Hoeven. René worked as a research trainee (AIO) for Wageningen University in the Environmental Technology section, having gained his doctoral degree, cum laude, in 2007.
The prize was awarded for Rozendal’s hi-tech discovery of how to extract hydrogen from wastewater. Using this new technique, known as biocatalyzed electrolysis, all wastewater can now be used to extract hydrogen. This electrolysis not only cleans the wastewater, but it also generates most of its own energy. Biocatalyzed electrolysis is a very promising technology for producing hydrogen from wastewater and offers a wide range of possible applications in the area of wastewater purification and transport in the chemical industry. Rozendal’s research falls under the third generation of wastewater purification which is very important both nationally and internationally.
René Rozendal is currently employed by the University of Queensland in Australia where he is carrying out similar research to facilitate the extraction of new chemicals from wastewater. This is why, last Wednesday, Cees Buisman, Professor of Environmental Technology and Rozendal’s promoter, accepted the prize on his behalf.
At the moment, three doctoral students from Wageningen (from Microbiology, Physical Chemistry and the Science of Colloids, and Environmental Technology) are working on Rozendal’s research topic at Wetsus.
Four years ago, this biennial prize was also won by a researcher from the Environmental Technology section of Wageningen University. On that occasion, it was Lucas Seghezzo who won the prize for his dissertation on the ‘Anaerobic treatment of domestic wastewater in subtropical regions’.
The Dow Energy Dissertation prize is awarded, on the recommendation of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), to doctoral students who have made a special contribution to advancing sustainable developments in processing industries, especially in the area of energy consumption. Discoveries that have not yet proved their value in practice also come under consideration for this prize.