Announcement

by Barış Darcan | Jun 08, 2022
With the support of TÜBİTAK-BİDEB 2221 visiting scientist support program, Dr. Hüseyin Enis Karahan started his studies at ITU SENTEK to develop a project on "Conversion of Microalgal Biomass to Carbon Dots by Environmentally Friendly Methods and Its Use in the Production of Graphene-Based Hydrogen Separation Membranes" and to form future collaborations. We welcome him and wish him success in his work.

With the support of TÜBİTAK-BİDEB 2221 visiting scientist support program, Dr. Hüseyin Enis Karahan started his studies at ITU SENTEK to develop a project on "Conversion of Microalgal Biomass to Carbon Dots by Environmentally Friendly Methods and Its Use in the Production of Graphene-Based Hydrogen Separation Membranes" and to form future collaborations. We welcome him and wish him success in his work.

Dr. Karahan completed his undergraduate studies at ITU in Chemical Engineering (principal major) and Molecular Biology and Genetics departments (within the double major program), and his master’s and doctoral studies in the Materials Science and Engineering program of Koç University and Bioengineering program of Nanyang Technology University, respectively. He started his post-doctoral research at Singapore Membrane Technology Center and The University of Sydney and later continued at the Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS) under Kyoto University. Since March 2022, he has been serving as a visiting scientist at ITU-SENTEK with the support of TUBITAK (BIDED 2221 program). He has received numerous international recognitions, including the SINGA Scholarship, the Brian Kelly Award, CARBON Journal Prize, JSPS Fellowship, and Fulbright Scholarship. Currently, he is a member of the editorial boards of CARBON and COATINGS journals. His research interests include molecular self-assembly, functional surface coatings, nanostructured antimicrobial materials, and advanced carbon-based membranes.

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    About Us

    The Synthetic Gas Fuels R&D center project proposal of İTÜ, together with Boğaziçi University and TÜBİTAK MAM Energy Institute proposals, was entitled to be funded by the Ministry of Development of the Republic of Turkey regarding their submission to the call number 3.1 titled “New Research Infrastructure Projects for 2015 – Natural Gas Production Technologies from Coal”. The project was officially initiated by being included in the 2016 Investment Program, published in the Official Gazette dated April 1st, 2016 and numbered 29671, with the project number 2016 K 121 250.

    The main purpose of the project is to found a thematic research and development center within the organizational structure of Istanbul Technical University, to conduct applied R&D studies on thermochemical conversion technologies for the production of hydrogen, synthetic fuels and chemicals from coal, biomass and waste (domestic and industrial).

    Upon finalizing the research infrastructure construction/installation of the center, the name was changed to "ITU SYNTHETIC FUELS AND CHEMICALS TECHNOLOGY CENTER (İTÜ-SENTEK)" by the approval of the ITU Rectorate.

    In our center, applied research and development activities are carried out on topics including but not limited to:  

    • reactor and process optimization of gasification and pyrolysis for the production of primarily hydrogen, then synthetic natural gas (methane), liquid fuels, monomers, and various chemicals from lignite, biomass, domestic/industrial waste and treatment sludge;
    • production, clean-up and purification of syngas (with a specified composition);
    • development of catalyst, reactor and catalytic processes for conversion of clean syngas to synthetic natural gas, liquid fuel, and various value-added chemicals.

    İTÜ-SENTEK research activities are aimed to build an extensive technology knowledge that can be transferred for compensating a significant portion of our country's energy needs, and for environment-friendly production of basic chemicals from coal, biomass and waste. All these efforts will not only serve to the purpose of reducing our country’s foreign dependency in oil and natural gas, and current deficit, but also make significant contributions to the promotion of our country’s competitiveness and innovative ideology.

    In İTÜ-SENTEK laboratories, novel and innovative research are performed through MSc or PhD level thesis projects on gasification or pyrolysis of coal, biomass and waste, syngas cleanup, membrane gas separation, production of hydrogen and value-added chemicals, production of carbon-rich materials from biochar, production of platform chemicals from pyrolytic oil, and development of catalysts and catalytic processes. The outcomes of these projects in the form of patents and scientific publications will be important contributions to the literature and to the industry. In addition, ITU-SENTEK is an important hub for training innovative and creative scientists and engineers specialized in the fields of clean coal technologies, production of energy and chemicals from biomass and waste.

    One other important goal of ITU-SENTEK is to establish strategic collaborations and develop partnerships with the industry on applied research and technology development projects.

    Gasification and Gas Cleanup Technologies, Pyrolysis and Gas Cleanup Technologies and Membrane Gas Separation Laboratories of ITU-SENTEK have lab-scale and semi-pilot scale test units to perform technology demonstration and validation studies at technology readiness level 4-5 (TRL 4-5). ITU-SENTEK Catalysis Laboratory is the only catalysis lab in Turkey that owns a high-throughput catalyst screening test system used in catalyst development for heterogeneous catalysis processes.