4 minute read
BETWEEN WASTE PLANT AND WINE CELLAR
PROFESSOR IN FOCUS
Engineer, consultant, researcher, and connoisseur of Hungarian wines. Professor Johan De Greef cannot be taken for granted. Versatility and cross-disciplinary thinking are the hallmark of his academic and professional career. Add to this his rich industrial experience and vast cultural baggage, and you have the perfect professor to train the engineers of the future.
As a bioprocess engineer and PhD in Chemical Engineering, Professor De Greef is familiar with both living and non-living matter and materials. Both need to be used sparingly and waste as little as possible. “As a student, I already realised that waste would become an indispensable resource to replace fossil fuels and natural ores. And that significant efforts were needed to increase the recovery of materials, minerals, molecules, and chemical elements.”
Technology Manager
After his PhD in 2005, Johan swapped academia for industry and joined Keppels Seghers Belgium, a leading player in environmental technology and services with a broad experience in the design, engineering, procurement, and construction of waste-to-energy plants. “At Keppels Seghers, I found exactly what I was looking for. Challenges to work in multidisciplinary teams and opportunities for personal growth.”
Johan started as a proposal engineer. Two years later, he is already proposal manager and another two years later Technology Manager, responsible for applied research and problem solving in waste-to-energy plants, R&D in innovation project management and technological consulting for waste projects. “In the company, they saw in me mainly an academic. I considered myself a real engineer. I met many master’s in engineering technology. What struck me was their problem-solving ability and broad employability.”
Consult
After 13 years in the industry, the Technology Manager decided to go his own way and founded DEG Engineering Consult. “We target companies, operators, project developers and designers in the waste business who want to optimise their -existing or new-tobuild- plants or processes.” Major players such as Aquafin and Indaver are clients of DEG Engineering Consult.
Shortly before starting his own business, Johan was elected Chair of the Board of the prestigious PREWIN European Network which includes 175 companies active in the waste-to-energy sector. Twice a year, members meet to exchange knowledge and experiences.
Professor
In 2020, Johan returned to academia and becomes associate professor of Materials Engineering at Group T Campus. At the same time, he is also one of the stalwarts of ChEMaRTs research group. “Our research covers a range from waste management over performance models for waste processing to chemical and thermal phenomena at waste or ash particle level,” Johan explains. “We conduct research on topics with high industrial and societal relevance and are proud of our close collaboration with industry.”
The professor has completely overhauled his teaching method. “Unlike before, I now start from industrial practice and concrete cases. The theoretical knowledge is thus brought to life and served to the engineer in a tailor-made way.”
Wine connoisseur
The French Sun King Louis XIV called him the ‘king of wines’. Russian Tsarina Catherine the Great had her personal stock guarded by Cossacks. And Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph gave it each year as a birthday gift to England’s Queen Victoria. We are talking about the Tokaj, the number one Hungarian white wine. “Under communism, the quality and reputation of Hungarian wines dropped to an all-time low, but nowadays Hungarian varieties are on the rise again and Hungary is well on its way to becoming a top wine country,” Johan says.
His love for Hungarian wines dates to 2013. During a folk festival in Denmark where Johan was performing with the Roots Music band, he met a group of Hungarians. It clicked immediately and Johan became fascinated by the language and culture but especially by wine. “Hungary has no less than 22 wine regions with more than 100 grape varieties. Wine culture dates to Roman times,” Johan continues. “Central Hungary is where most of the wines are grown. They are mostly fresh and light wines. In the west around Lake Balaton, you find full-bodied white wines but also robust reds. Northern Hungary is the best-known grape region with top wines like the white Tokay and the red Egri Bikavér.”
Every year, Johan travels to Hungary to discover new flavours and varieties. By now, he is already a familiar face with numerous local winemakers who entrusted him with the secrets of wine making. He even learnt Hungarian specifically for it, which he believes to be the most mathematical language, so a cue for engineers. According to Johan, language and wine are the best gateways that give out to an unusually rich part of European culture.
Yves Persoons
