QUYNH HOANG: CONNECTING RESEARCH AND INDUSTRY

RESEARCHER IN FOCUS

Corrosion of the heat-exchanging components is one of the major operational problems in Waste-to-Energy (WtE) combustion plants. Due to its heterogeneous and complex nature, municipal solid waste, when combusted, generates flue gas with high dust and pollutant concentrations, leading to the corrosion of the heat-exchanging surfaces in the steel boiler. This phenomenon limits the electrical efficiency and increases the operating and maintenance cost. At Group T Leuven Campus, Quynh Hoang is doing research that focuses on the optimisation of the energy and material performance of these combustion plants.

Quynh was born in Thanh Hoa, a flourishing city at the North Central Coast of Vietnam, about 150 kilometers south of the capital Hanoi. She remembers vividly always have been fascinated by sciences in general and chemistry in particular. In 2012, she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Hanoi University of Science and Technology. After graduation, Quynh worked as a process engineer in two oil and gas petrochemical EPC companies, one in Hanoi and the other in Ho Chi Minh City (the former Saigon), where she carried out the process design of refineries and conducted risk assessment studies for oil and gas platforms. “There I have learned to apply the chemical principles to practical, real-world problems related to energy, health, safety and environment”, Quynh explains. “But at the same time, I realised that I needed more knowledge and a solid scientific background”.

Quynh Hoang

Research assistant

Thanks to a Belgium - Vietnam Bilateral Scholarship Programme, Quynh was able to pick up her study again, this time at KU Leuven where she graduated in 2017 ‘Magna cum laude’ as Master of Science in Chemical Engineering Technology at the Leuven campus of the Faculty of Engineering Technology. As the result of her excellent marks, Quynh was awarded the Prize of the Royal Flemish Chemical Association for the most meritorious student in Chemical Engineering.

Quynhs’ remarkable interest in environmental courses with a focus on waste combustion processes and computational fluid dynamics (CFD), as well as her professional experience in chemical companies, were noticed by Prof. Jo Van Caneghem of the Materials Technology unit. So Quynh was invited to join the ChEMarRT research group at Group T Campus.

“ChEMaRTs stands for Chemistry for Energy and Materials Recovery in Thermal Systems”, Quynh continues. “Our group is dedicated to improve energy and material recovery in thermal systems by controlling the chemistry in the involved processes. Our focus is on thermal waste processing as an essential part of a sustainable circular economy. Moreover, our group is proud of its close research collaboration with industry. The aim of our applied research approach is to provide answers to industrial, technological challenges by translating and introducing the results into existing processes. As the connection between industry and research is one of my favourite fields of interest, I immediately felt at home in the ChEMaRTS team”.

PhD project

After one year with Keppel-Seghers Belgium, a company specialized in the construction of Waste-to-Energy plants, the collaboration team consisting of Prof. Van Caneghem, Ass. Prof. Vanierschot, Dr. De Greef and Quynh decided to continue the research on high-temperature corrosion in WtE. They submitted a doctoral proposal and applied for a Baekeland mandate funding, which is assigned to a ‘consortium’ of at least a PhD-candidate, a Flemish company and a Flemish university. The project was granted for a four-year PhD project, starting from November 2018.

“I will build further on the results of the chemical engineering analysis by conducting a numerical CFD approach in order to provide fundamental explanations both on the particle level as on the furnace level”, Quynh declares. “More specifically, I will develop a comprehensive set of models specifically applicable to thermal waste processing with emphasis on HCI/SOx. These models will be directly applicable to real Wasteto-Energy plants, helping us to understand the relative correlation between process parameters such as airflow and the formation and release of HCI/Sox. This way, the models can be used to control corrosion in municipal solid waste installations”.

“Moreover, I am convinced that these models may also contribute to fundamental knowledge of the thermal waste processing in general and can be used for all types of Waste-to-Energy plants. Until now, comprehensive research on thermal waste processing in the context of boiler corrosion has not been fully addressed in any prior study. I hope my project will be the first to assess this lack”, Quynh concludes.

Yves Persoons