Appreciation Award for UVET graduate

The master graduate Lukas Krane was awarded the Austrian “Würdigungspreis”

The appresciation Award is given annually by the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research to outstanding theses at Austrian higher education institutions. This year, an MCI graduate of the Environmental, Process and Energy Engineering program was honored with this special award. The award ceremony took place in the Aula der Wissenschaften in Vienna.

Lukas Krane completed his Master's degree in 2021 with excellent results. Of course, the UVET team is also particularly pleased about the honor of this excellent thesis and so Alexander Dumfort, full-time lecturer in the program and supervisor of the master's thesis, traveled to Vienna to congratulate Lukas Krane on his achievement.

The master thesis dealt with the operation and simulation of a production plant for hydroxymethylfurfural and levulinic acid. In a time when the availability of petrochemical resources is limited, biomass resources represent a promising alternative for a sustainable supply of the chemical industry. Among other things, hydroxymethylfurfural has the potential to replace the basic chemical compounds needed in PET plastic bottles in a renewable way. The aim of Lukas Krane's master thesis was to describe an existing pilot plant for the production of hydroxymethylfurfural and levulinic acid by means of computer simulation. Through this simulation, it was finally possible to show which process parameters are needed to achieve the highest possible yield of hydroxymethylfurfural.

The Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research honors students with a prize money of EUR 3,000 each year since 1990 for the best diploma and master degrees at Austrian higher education institutions.