EURECHA Process Design Contest

The Process Design Contest is an annual activity organized by EURECHA, with the support of the CAPE Working Party and the Energy section of the European Federation of Chemical Engineering. It is open to students from any university (or equivalent institution), usually in teams. The participants have several months to prepare and submit solutions to an open problem that involves Energy and Chemical Engineering, while using tools of Computer Aided Chemical Engineering.

Current edition (2025):

The topic of the 2025 edition of the Process Design Contest, sponsored by AVEVA, is

Manufacturing Chemical Products from CO2 using Renewable Energy Resources in Belgium

 

The goal of the project is to investigate novel and alternative process designs that use CO2 and renewable energy to produce key chemical products in the context of Belgium as the host country of the upcoming ESCAPE-35.

 

Prizes for winning teams include monetary awards as well as presentation slots at the ESCAPE-35 conference and the CAPE Forum.
Details on the task, awards, and selection procedure are available here.

 

Submissions are accepted until April 15th, 2025, 23:59 CET.

Participating groups can also join two online interim feedback sessions with the contest organizers:

  • Session 1: Tuesday, 17 December 2024, 14:00-15:00 CET
  • Session 2: Tuesday, 18 February 2025, 15:30-17:00 CET

To participate in these sessions or for any other questions, please contact eurecha.secretariat@gmail.com.

Past editions

The EURECHA Process Design Contest (previously EURECHA Student Contest) has been going on for several years.
Here you find a selection of past topics and winning contributions.

Student Contest 2024 (sponsored by AVEVA):

  • Topic: Manufacturing Chemical Products from CO2 using Renewable Energy Resources in Italy
  • 1st prize: Nikolaos Kalmoukidis, Maximiliano Taube, Savvas Staikos, and Amsalia Barus (TU Delft, The Netherlands):
    Transforming CO2 into Formic Acid: An Eco Efficient Design in Italy
  • 2nd prize: SafikriAji Pratama, Shifa Gumuruh, Sultan Salman, Robith Hadhromi, and Ihsaan Furlonge (Imperial College London, UK):
    Design, Simulation, and Optimisation of Sustainable Fertiliser Production: Case Study of a Large-Scale Urea Facility in Italy

Student Contest 2023 (sponsored by PSE for SPEED):

  • Topic: Manufacturing Chemical Products from CO2 using Renewable Energy Resources in Greece
  • 1st prize: Nadia Reda, Zoé Deckers, Jean Jacques Colard, Denis William Ateajeu Tchio, and Maurine Hennuy (University of Liège, Belgium):
    Production of olefins from carbon dioxide and renewable electricity
  • 2nd prize: Anziel Malandri, Daria Kozyr, Haditya K. Purwanto, Maximilian Bloor, and Noof Al Lawati (Imperial College, UK):
    Data Driven Optimisation of Intermittent Methanol Production via Electrocatalytic Reduction of CO2 from Direct Air Capture

Student Contest 2021 (sponsored by PSE for SPEED):

  • Topic: Manufacturing Chemical Products from CO2 using Renewable Energy Resources in France
  • 1st prize: Jannik Bothe, Johanna Güttler, Mathis Heyer, Dion Jakobs, and Jan Pavšek (RWTH Aachen University, Germany):
    CO2 Utilization under Intermittent Electricity Supply: Sorption Enhanced DME Synthesis with an Integrated RSOC Process
  • 2nd prize: Loirs Baggio, Martin Govaert, Bernard Marchal, and Antoine Rouxhet (University of Liège, Belgium):
    Direct Dimethyl Carbonate Production from Carbon Dioxide and Methanol

Student Contest 2020:

  • Topic: Mobile On-Demand (MOD) Biopharmaceutical Vaccine Manufacture
  • 1st prize: Steffen Fahr, Lukas Thiel, and Carl Sengoba (RWTH Aachen University, Germany):
    Mobile on-Demand (MOD) mRNA Vaccine Production: A Design and Optimal Location Study

Student Contest 2019:

  • Topic: Transition to Industrial Production Based on Green Hydrogen
  • 1st prize: Maximilian Siska, Michael Moritz, Jan Raphael Seidenberg, Marc Stumm, & Song Zhai (RWTH Aachen University, Germany):
    A Path to Sustainability: Green Hydrogen Based Production of Steel and Ammonia

Student Contest 2018:

  • Topic: Green Diesel Production
  • 1st prize: Javier Moreno Fernández-Villamil, and Aurelio Hurtado de Mendoza Paniagua (Polytechnic University of Madrid, Spain):
    Preliminary design of the green diesel production process by hydrotreatment of vegetable oils
  • 2nd prize: Robert Kiefel, and Jannik T. Lüthje (RWTH Aachen University, Germany):
    Conceptual Process Design: Production of Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil as an Additive for Petro-Diesel

Student Contest 2017:

  • Topic: Carbon Capture, Storage and Reuse
  • 1st prize: Flemming Holtorf, Luise Being, Andreas Vellguth, Daniel Felder, and Pascal Padberg (RWTH Aachen University, Germany):
    Screening and Optimal Design of CCU Processes Using Superstructure Optimization
  • 2nd prize: Alba Carrero Parreño, Juan Diego Medrano García, and Natalia Quirante (University of Alicante, Spain):
    Carbon CO2 Reuse in Direct DME Syntehsis from Syngas

Student Contest 2016:

  • Topic: CO2 Separation, Transport, and Sequestration
  • 1st prize: Jannik Burre, Adrian Caspari, Johanna Kleinekorte, Lukas Mertens, and Artur Schweidtmann (RWTH Aachen University, Germany)