prof.dr.ir. L. Lefferts (Leon)

Leon Lefferts (1960) was born in Enschede and visited the Jacobus College, receiving the Atheneum diploma in 1978. He was trained as a chemical engineer at the University of Twente (1983) and received his PhD in 1987 also at the University of Twente. He continued to specialize on heterogeneous catalysis and joined the DSM Research laboratories (1987-1999), working on catalyst characterization, hydrogenation, slurry phase catalysis, carbon supported metals and kinetics. He acted as research scientist, project leader as well as senior scientist. In this 12 years period the emphasis on output was clearly on proprietary knowledge rather than on publications. He founded Eurokin in 1999, a consortium of companies and universities addressing challenges in the field of kinetics, that is successfully operating since then.

He was appointed full professor “Catalytic Processes and Materials” (CPM) at the University of Twente in 1999. He has been visiting professor at Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2005-2007. He was appointed as Finnish Distinguished Professor in 2011-2015, and continued as a visiting professor at Aalto University in Helsinki till 2019. He acted as director of the research institute IMPACT (2010-2011) and the Green Energy Initiative (2013-2015) within the University of Twente. He supervised 32 PhD students, of which 25 graduated.

His research interests include biofeed conversion, including catalytic upgrading of flash pyrolysis oil as well as APR (Aqueous Phase Reforming). A second theme is heterogeneous catalysts in liquid phase, motivated on both technological challenges, striving for minimization of concentration gradient in porous catalyst particles, as well as fundamental challenges, developing new experimental techniques for studying the catalyst surface in contact with liquid reactant mixtures and solutions. A recnt new topic in the filed is the influence of formation of bubbles on transport in catalyst particles. The third theme is activation of stable molecules. This work is exploring breakthrough technologies for activation of alkanes, CO₂, CH₄ and H₂O, e.g. via using soft oxidants, non-redox catalysts at high temperatures, electrical fields or plasma-catalysis. Furthermore, the use of water as a soft oxidant is of special interest and the role of oxide materials, e.g. zirconia and ceria, for activation of water and CO₂ is subject of investigations.

Engineering & Materials Science

# Carbon Nanofibers
# Catalyst Supports
# Catalysts
# Hydrogenation

Chemistry

# Carbon Nanofibre
# Catalyst
# Nitrite

Physics & Astronomy

# Catalysts

Faculty of Science and Technology (TNW), Catalytic Processes and Materials (CPM)

Aalto University School of Chemical Engineering
Scientific Advisory Board
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Strategic Advisory Board Energy

The first theme is heterogeneous catalysts in liquid phase, motivated on both technological challenges, striving for minimization of concentration gradient in porous catalyst particles, as well as fundamental challenges, developing new experimental techniques for studying the catalyst surface in contact with liquid reactant mixtures and solutions. Most important results include the development of a new class of micro-structured catalyst supports (hairy foams) and more recently structured membrane contactor reactors based on CNFs, as well as pushing the borders of application of in-situ IR spectroscopy in aqueous phase with dedicated cells that enable Attenuated-Total-Reflection IR spectroscopy, recently even at elevated temperatures and pressures e.g. for aqueous phase reforming. The group is in the forefront of this technology and our work was highlighted in Chem. Soc. Rev.. Most of the work done so far was using hydrogenation of nitrate, nitrite and bromate as model reactions, that are also societal relevant in the realm of purification of drinking-water.

Second theme is activation of stable molecules, including selective oxidation. This work is exploring breakthrough technologies for activation of alkanes, e.g. via using soft oxidants, non-redox catalysts at high temperatures, electrical fields or plasma-catalysis. A cluster of three recent projects in close cooperation with DIFFER (FOM institute on energy, Prof. van de Sanden c.s.)) is aiming at combining plasma technology with heterogeneous catalysis, implying the need to build mutual understanding and cooperation with the plasma-physicists community. Joint workshops have been organized on this emerging theme, interacting with University of Antwerp (Prof. Bogaerts, dr. Meynen, TUe (Prof. Hessel) and in future also DIFFER will be involved. Furthermore, the use of water as a soft oxidant is of special interest and the role of oxide materials for activation of water is subject of investigations. The work on zirconia and ceria, both at Twente and at Aalto, is highly appreciated by the field, is frequently cited, and Leon delivered invited lectures on the subject. This work relevant is for steam reforming of hydrocarbons and oxygenates, as well as for water-gas-shift.

Finaly, catalytic upgrading of biomass, e.g. upgrading of flash-pyrolysis oil, both during flash-pyrolysis as well as down-stream has been an active research theme for quite some time. This direction was highly inspired on the early activities at University of Twente of prof. Wim van Swaaij, who explored the technology of flash pyrolysis at an early stage. The group has been a trendsetter in this field and early work on e.g. reforming of acetic-acid is an over-200 times cited research (non-review) paper. Also aqueous phase reforming of oxygenates and carbohydrates is studied in a number of projects. The most important result, next to a significant number of papers, is the development of a basic heterogeneous catalyst improving the quality of flash-pyrolysis oil, based on which KiOR decided to develop this technology to demonstration level.

Rouwenhorst, K. H. R., Tabak, S. , & Lefferts, L. (2024). Improving the energy yield of plasma-based NOX synthesis with in situ adsorption. Reaction chemistry & engineering, 9, 528-531. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1039/D3RE00593C

Rouwenhorst, K. H. R. , & Lefferts, L. (2024). Plasma-based conversions with in situ product removal. Plasma processes and polymers, 21(1), Article 2200244. https://doi.org/10.1002/ppap.202200244

Rouwenhorst, K. H. R., Jardali, F., Bogaerts, A. , & Lefferts, L. (2023). Correction: From the Birkeland-Eyde process towards energy-efficient plasma-based NO X synthesis: a techno-economic analysis. Energy & environmental science, 16(12), 6170-6173. https://doi.org/10.1039/D3EE90066E

Rouwenhorst, K. H. R. , & Lefferts, L. (2023). Plasma-catalytic Ammonia Synthesis via Eley-Rideal Reactions: A Kinetic Analysis. ChemCatChem, 15(12), Article e202300078. https://doi.org/10.1002/cctc.202300078

Huang, P., Baldenhofer, R., Martinho, R. P. , Lefferts, L. , & Faria Albanese, J. A. (2023). Stimulus-Responsive Control of Transition States on Nanohybrid Polymer-Metal Catalysts. ACS catalysis, 13(10), 6590-6602. https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.3c00276

Postma, R. S., Mendes, P. S. F., Pirro, L. , Banerjee, A., Thybaut, J. W. , & Lefferts, L. (2023). Modelling of the catalytic initiation of methane coupling under non-oxidative conditions. Chemical Engineering Journal, 454(Part 3), Article 140273. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2022.140273

da Silva, M. J. E. , Sybren Postma, R. , Lefferts, L. , Banerjee, A. , & Alexander Faria Albanese, J. (2023). The onset of mass transport limitations triggers the stimulus responsiveness of polymer coated catalysts. Chemical Engineering Journal, 455(Part 2), Article 140809. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2022.140809

Enes da Silva, M. J. (2022). Utilization of P-NIPAM polymeric brushes in the development of thermo-responsive catalytic systems: A study of the effects of self-regulating polymers on molecular transport and reaction kinetics. [PhD Thesis - Research UT, graduation UT, University of Twente]. University of Twente. https://doi.org/10.3990/1.9789036554817

Huang, P. (2022). Polymer Induced Solvation Effects on Liquid Phase Catalytic Hydrogenations. [PhD Thesis - Research UT, graduation UT, University of Twente]. University of Twente. https://doi.org/10.3990/1.9789036555012

Rouwenhorst, K. H. R. (2022). Nitrogen fixation with renewable electricity: Plasma catalysis as an alternative for small-scale ammonia synthesis? [PhD Thesis - Research UT, graduation UT, University of Twente]. University of Twente. https://doi.org/10.3990/1.9789036554190

See all research output of this employee

Leon teaches, together with several collegues, the Kinetics and Catalysis course (BSc Chemical Science Engineering) as well as the Advanced Catalysis course and the Capita Selecta Course on Catalysis (MSc, Chemical Engineering).

Of course, guidance of final research assignment on BSc and MSc level is also offered.

Bachelor

Chemical Science Engineering

Master

Chemical Science & Engineering

Courses in the current academic year are added at the moment they are finalised in the Osiris system. Therefore it is possible that the list is not yet complete for the whole academic year.