PREPA 13
It has become a tradition that every four years, the Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain) and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KULeuven) jointly organise a symposium devoted to the scientific bases for the preparation of heterogeneous catalysts. These meetings bring together researchers from academia and industry and offer a forum for discussions on the chemistry involved in the preparation of industrial heterogeneous catalysts.
The history of this series of events stretches back to 1975 and was initiated B Delmon and then repeated 3 years later with subsequent symposiums being held every 4 years, until of course recent events which has necessitated a five year gap between PREPA12 and PREPA13, however it is great to see this symposium back again. There have been a long list of hard working people who have made these symposia successful and it includes G. Poncelet who was responsible for the organisation until PREPA9 when Eric Gaigneaux took over with the strong support and help of a real team, involving P. Grange, P. Ruiz, M. Devillers, Sophie Hermans , D. Debecker, to cite those of UCLouvain only. KULeuven has always been associated since the beginning : P. Jacobs and J. Martens being the senior participants, with assistance of D. Devos, K. Kirschock, and now M. Dusselier.
I attended my first PREPA symposium, the 9th in the series in 2006, and was impressed not only by the standards of the presentations, both oral and posters but also by the mix of both academics and industrialists and the discussions and interactions among the attendees and the organisation of the conference. Looking back at the conference proceedings, another fantastic asset of these meetings, the foreword gave an overview by the editors and Eric Gaigneaux, who I have subsequently learned was his first as organiser. The main topics of the proceedings are as relevant today as they were in 2006 and were Key aspects in catalysts preparation, micro- and mesoporous supports, supported metal catalysts, structured catalysts, tailored zeolites, catalysis by bases, and catalysts for fuel production. I was interested to note one of the presentations described the preparation, characterization and catalytic performance for biodiesel production, the graph below this shows this is exactly the start in the vast increase in interest and therefore publications in this field.
This highlights the work of the scientific committee which consists of the conference organisers and a mixture of academic and industrial members, which aids in the great relevance of areas and focus of the conference.
As has been mentioned the scientific committee is made up of academics and industry and looking at the 2006 committee the list of academic institutions and companies is very impressive and highlights the high regard this series has in both these circles.
Another factor contributing to the popularity of PREPA symposium is the social events that highlight the best of what Belgium has to offer in terms of location, beer and food which all contributes to further scientific discussion in a more social environment with a wide range of participants.
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I returned in 2010 for the 10th symposium in the “Scientific Bases for the Preparation of Heterogeneous Catalysts” series which was held 35 years after the foundation meeting and once again the presentations and posters were of a very high standard and relevance to an industrial chemist. I had particular interest this year and unfortunately work I had been pursuing was the main focus of a presentation, and although disappointing it was also enlightening to hear about another group’s perspective on the same subject. This symposium focus areas were in scaling up, shaping and macrostructured catalysts, basic understanding and innovations in unit operations, nanostructured catalysts, hierarchical porous structures and hybrid catalysts and in situ spectroscopic follow-up of catalysts preparation. Once again showing the combination of topics that are relevant to both academia and industrial partners alike, which is also reflected in the Scientific committee in terms of representative of industrial companies, academic institutions, and the organisers of the conference. In this edition of the symposium there were 40 oral presentations and 193 poster presentations which are included in the Scientific Bases for the preparation of heterogeneous catalysts as full papers which to this day I still reference.
The next edition of the symposium I was invited to take part in the scientific committee and very much enjoyed the role of assessing the many abstracts that were submitted for PREPA11 and the discussion with the committee members of the merit of papers and areas. This only added to the enjoyment of this conference. Looking through my book of abstracts it is interesting to see the notes I had taken and also which talks and posters I had highlighted as being most relevant to my role at the time. The topics of the 11th symposium were; control of porosity and hierarchical materials, electrocatalytic and photocatalytic processes, advanced preparation of catalysts and supports, alternative synthetic methods, key concepts and tools in catalyst preparation, metallic nanoparticles. While looking back I came across this photo and realised that PREPA11 took place during the world cup and this is an image of my colleagues and friends watching a game after one of the conference days with the flag of Belgium in the background but I believe involved Germany as three of the group were (and still are from) Sasol Germany, and I have been informed that the game was Germany vs Brazil which was famously won 7-1 by Germany, but unfortunately Scotland was not involved in this tournament. Colleagues on the day were Sean Barradas , Dirk Niemeyer , Katharina Goroll and Marcos Schöneborn .
Unfortunately for the 12th edition I was unable to partake however speaking to colleagues and friends who did attend it was as successful and enlightening as previous years.
The series returns after a longer than usual period, 5 years instead of 4 due to the worldwide situation that put a halt to so many events and impacted on the sharing of ideas, results and discussions that does so much towards the advancement of everyone’s work. Once again I was able to assist by partaking in the scientific committee and reviewing the many abstracts that were submitted and I am very much looking forward to the 13th proceedings in July. I hope to catch up with many friends/collaborators and scientists that I admire. This conference series does allow for many interactions and I always find the atmosphere and size of the event ideal for catching up and discussions with a varied and wide range of participants. It also allows me to catch up with Sophie Hermans, as we carried out our PhD's together, who is on the organisation committee.
One other person who contributes significantly to the success of the events and my enjoyment of these symposium is Françoise Somers whose hard work, effort and support given to the participants and has always been incredibly helpful and welcoming and it is always a pleasure to meet Francoise at these events, she is also instrumental in the organisation of the scientific committee and the meetings.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the organising committee and everyone else that contributes to the organisation of these symposium, for their hard work and effort are much appreciated, looking forward to seeing everyone in July.
David Brown