Sebastian Haben

PhD candidate
Utrecht University

Department

Inorganic Chemistry

Contact information

Room
Vening Meineszgebouw C – 2nd floor

Email address
s.haben@uu.nl

Key expertises

Heterogeneous catalysis, operando spectroscopy, data analysis, coding

About me

I was born in Germany near Munich where also obtained both my Bachelors and Masters degree at the Technical University of Munich. At the beginning of 2019 I started with my PhD in the group of Prof. B. M. Weckhuysen.

About my research

Methane is a cheap and abundant carbon feedstock which has the potential to become the source for lower olefins and aromatics in an atom- and energy-efficient way. The Methane dehydroaromatization (MDA) reaction is especially suitable for this task, as methane transformation is achieved without any oxidants, resulting in excluding the greenhouse gas CO2 as a reaction product and instead producing hydrogen. Unfortunately, the catalyst usually used for the MDA reaction suffers from rapid deactivation due to coking. Within this project I aim to utilize and develop various operando techniques to gain fundamental insight into the working catalyst to increase its activity and stability.

Academic career

PhD candidate Since 2019: PhD candidate in the group of Inorganic Chemistry and Catalysis at Utrecht University, under the supervision of Prof. B.M. Weckhuysen Master student 2014 - 2018: Master student at the Technical University of Munich. Master Thesis under the supervision of Prof. M. Groll. Bachelor student 2011 - 2014: Bachelor student at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). Bachelor Thesis under the supervision of Prof. B. Rieger.