Professor Tom Van Gerven, Chairman of EFCE Working Party on Process Intensification; Professor Jean-Marc Le Lann, EFCE Scientific Vice President; Dr. Michael Shoham Patrascu (photography by Alicia Garcia)
The award’s judges cited the thesis, completed as part of PhD work at the Technion – I.I.T., Haifa, Israel, for providing excellent breadth and depth, scientific impact, innovation and industrial relevance.
“His work addresses various challenges, including thermodynamic and separation issues, through the design of a single integrated processing unit using highly selective Pd-membranes. This design is a proof of concept for on-board pure H2 generators, with flexible fuel sources, and holds a great promise to eliminate the need for expensive H2 transport and storage technologies for portable or stationary applications,” states EFCE.
Patrascu now is a postdoctoral associate at the Process Systems Engineering Laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.