Jürgen Gmehling

Jürgen Gmehling (born January 13, 1946 in Duisburg ) is a professor emeritus for technical chemistry at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg .

biography

He began his career with a professional training as a chemical laboratory assistant at Duisburger Kupferhütte, before studying chemical engineering at the engineering school in Essen and then chemistry at the universities in Dortmund and Clausthal . He received his chemistry diploma from the University of Dortmund in 1970 and his doctorate (Dr. rer. Nat., Inorganic Chemistry ) in 1973. He then worked as a research assistant at the chair for reaction engineering in the chemical engineering department of the University of Dortmund, later as a private lecturer and associate professor after his habilitation in 1982. From 1977 to 1978 Gmehling spent a year with Professor John M. Prausnitz in Berkeley , USA.

In 1989 Gmehling was appointed full professor of technical chemistry at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg. There he worked at the Institute for Pure and Applied Chemistry (IRAC) until his retirement in 2011.

Research areas

Process development is the focus of his work. The work on software for process synthesis and process simulation , as well as the measurement, collection and assessment of (essentially) thermophysical material properties form the most important sub-areas. The following list gives a few of the work topics in a nutshell, but is by no means complete.

Measurements

• Phase equilibrium data (vapor-liquid equilibria, liquid-liquid equilibria, solid-liquid equilibria, gas solubilities, heats of mixing, activity coefficients, etc.)
• Basic substance data (phase transition heating, vapor pressures, densities, viscosities)
• Reaction kinetics (heterogeneous catalysis)

Data collections

In the 1970s, Gmehling began to systematically evaluate the scientific literature with the aim of building a database for vapor-liquid equilibria. The thermodynamic data was used to develop a new method for estimating activity coefficients called UNIFAC . This database was further developed and is now known as the Dortmund database .

Model development

Gmehling, with his employees and cooperation partners, in particular Aage Fredenslund from the Technical University in Lyngby , Denmark, developed models for estimating various thermodynamic and thermophysical data:

• Activity coefficient methods such as UNIFAC (see also group contribution methods ) and extensions. An industrial consortium was set up for this work , in which a large number of well-known German and international corporations are represented.
• Equations of state
• g ^E models
• Prediction of basic substance properties

Software development

In addition to the implementation of the self-developed methods, there are also significant developments

• an expert system, e.g. for selecting aids for azeotropic and extractive rectification .
• Parameter adjustment programs for g ^E models and many pure substance equations

More work

Gmehling is also working on researching and optimizing chemical production processes such as reactive rectification and membrane processes.

Awards

Jürgen Gmehling (right) receives the Rossini Lectureship Award , International Conference on Chemical Thermodynamics (ICCT), Warsaw 2008

• 1982: Arnold Eucken Prize from GVC ( VDI Society for Process Engineering and Chemical Engineering)
• 2008: "Rossini Lectureship Award" presented at the 20th International Conference on Chemical Thermodynamics. This prize is awarded by the board of the "International Association of Chemical Thermodynamics" (International Association of Chemical Thermodynamics, abbreviated IACT), the organizer of the biennial conference, for significant contributions to chemical thermodynamics. An important part of the award ceremony is the “Rossini Lecture” given by the winner.
• 2010: Gmelin-Beilstein commemorative coin
• 2012: Emil Kirschbaum Medal

• 2020 Katz Award from the GPA (Gas Processor Association) Midstream Association.

Company formation

Gmehling has founded two companies:

• The DDBST GmbH was founded in 1989 to be able to work on the Dortmund Data continue.
• The LTP GmbH was founded 1999th Her main field of work is the experimental determination of thermophysical material data.

Publications

In addition to numerous scientific articles, Gmehling has also published several books. In addition to textbooks on thermodynamics, basic operations and technical chemistry, there are primarily printed data collections published by DECHEMA in the Chemistry Data Series and by Wiley-VCH-Verlag ( Azeotropic Data ). These data collections are all software-generated extracts from the Dortmund database.

Expert activity

Gmehling is co-editor of three scientific journals and reviewer for several others. He also works as an expert for the German Research Foundation and for the Czech, Finnish and Slovenian Research Associations.

Web links

• Literature by and about Jürgen Gmehling in the catalog of the German National Library
• Chair on uni-oldenburg.de
• Prof. Jürgen Gmehling on uni-oldenburg.de
• DDBST GmbH on ddbst.de
• LTP GmbH on ltp-oldenburg.de
• UNIFAC consortium on unifac.org

Individual evidence

1. ↑ S. Horstmann, K. Fischer and J. Gmehling: Isothermal Vapor-Liquid Equilibrium and Excess Enthalpy Data for the Binary Systems Water + Sulfolane and Methanol + N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone . In: J. Chem. Eng. Data . Volume 49, No. 6, 2004, pp. 1499-1503.
2. ^ R. Joh, J. Kreutz and J. Gmehling: Measurement and Prediction of Ternary Solid-Liquid Equilibria . In: J. Chem. Eng. Data . Volume 42, No. 5, 1997, pp. 886-889.
3. ↑ D. Gruber, M. Topphoff and J. Gmehling: Measurement of activity coefficients at infinite dilution using gas-liquid chromatography. 8 Results for 22 solutes in tetra ethylene glycol dimethyl ether and 18 solutes in Triethylene glycol dibutyl ether at 303.15 K and 343.15 K . In: Eldata Int. Electron. J. Phys.-Chem. Data . Volume 3, 1997, pp. 215-224.
4. ↑ J. Gmehling and U. Weidlich: The Dortmund database. Basis for the further development of the UNIFAC method . In: Chem. Ing. Tech. Vol. 57, No. 5, 1985, pp. 447-449.
5. ↑ Å. Fredenslund, J. Gmehling, ML Michelsen, P. Rasmussen and JM Prausnitz: Computerized Design of Multicomponent Distillation Columns Using the UNIFAC Group Contribution Method for Calculation of Activity Coefficients . In: Ind. Eng. Chem. Process Des. Dev. Vol. 16, No. 4, 1977, pp. 450-462.
6. ↑ U. Weidlich and J. Gmehling: A Modified UNIFAC Model. 1. Prediction of VLE, ​​hE, and gamma Infinite . In: Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. Vol. 26, No. 7, 1987, pp. 1372-1381.
7. ^ T. Holderbaum and J. Gmehling: PSRK: A Group-Contribution Equation of State based on UNIFAC . In: Fluid Phase Equilib. Volume 70, 1991, pp. 251-265.
8. ↑ C. Möllmann and J. Gmehling: Selection of selective additives for rectification through combined access to experimental and pre-calculated equilibrium data . In: Chem. Ing. Tech. Volume 69, No. 3, 1997, pp. 324-328.
9. ↑ Jürgen Gmehling receives Gmelin-Beilstein-Denkmünze - 6th German Conference on Chemoinformatics , report in: Informationsdienst Wissenschaft from November 2, 2010, accessed on November 15, 2010.
10. ↑ ProcessNet medals are awarded in Karlsruhe , DECHEMA press release, accessed on September 11, 2012.
11. ↑ Lars Ruhsam: Recognition for scientific work, Oldenburg chemist Jürgen Gmehling receives prestigious award - award ceremony in the USA must be canceled, Sunday newspaper Oldenburg, 18, Saturday, May 30, 2020, p. 6.