Marc-Olivier Coppens
Prof. Dr. Marc-Olivier Coppens
Session: Mechanical and Thermal Preprocessing
Title: Sustainable Process Systems
through Nature-Inspired
Chemical Engineering
Marc-Olivier COPPENS is Ramsay Memorial Professor in Chemical Engineering at University College London (UCL), since 2012, after professorships at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (USA) and TU Delft (The Netherlands). Having served as Head of Department of Chemical Engineering for 8 years, he is, since 2021, Vice-Dean for Engineering (Interdisciplinarity, Innovation) at UCL. He directs the UCL Centre for Nature-Inspired Engineering (CNIE), which was granted “Frontier Engineering” (2013) and “Progression” (2019) Awards by EPSRC (UK’s Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council). He is most recognised for pioneering nature-inspired chemical engineering (NICE) over the past >20 years and developing a systematic nature-inspired solution (NIS) methodology to accelerate innovation and address Grand Challenges. He has published >160 journal articles and has delivered >50 plenaries, keynotes and named lectures. He is Fellow of AIChE, IChemE, RSC, Corresponding Member of the Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften (Germany), Qiushi Professor at Zhejiang University (China), and Scientific Council Member for IFP Energies Nouvelles (France). He received the AIChE PSRI Lectureship Award in Fluidization (2017), and School of Engineering Education Awards at Rensselaer (2012) and UCL (2020). He is also the Editor-in-Chief of Chemical Engineering & Processing: Process Intensification and serves on the editorial boards of RSC Molecular Systems Design & Engineering, Powder Technology, and KONA Powder & Particle.
Sustainable Process Systems through Nature-Inspired Chemical Engineering
Tackling Grand Challenges in energy and sustainable manufacturing, framed by the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but also economic requirements, requires step-changes through transformative approaches and interdisciplinary thinking, beyond incremental variations on traditional designs. We turn to nature for inspiration, because nature provides us with examples of solutions, perfected over the eons, to similar challenges as those we encounter in technology, such as scalability, efficiency, and resilience. However, such solutions from nature cannot be copied: their underpinning mechanisms need to be understood, before adopting and adapting them to the different context of industrial applications. This can be achieved via a systematic, nature-inspired solution (NIS) methodology, developed and applied at UCL’s Centre for Nature-Inspired Engineering (CNIE), to accelerate innovation and sustainable development. I will illustrate this approach with examples related to chemical engineering (NICE) for process intensification, from fluidized beds to hierarchically structured catalysts, fuel cells, and membrane separations.
