New professor at the faculty

The Faculty of Technology and Bionics welcomes a new professor: Dr.-Ing. Kai Masuch has been appointed Professor of Thermodynamics and Process Engineering at Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences with effect from 1 September 2022.

Kai Masuch, born in 1976, studied mechanical engineering at RWTH Aachen University, specialising in process engineering, and subsequently completed his PhD there on the subject of Raman spectroscopic laser measurement techniques on biopolymers for determining heat and mass transfer parameters. He subsequently held various roles, including Deputy Head of the Institute for Technical Thermodynamics and Thermal Process Engineering at the University of Stuttgart and technical division and project manager at a medium-sized company specialising in biomass processing. He has taught at the University of Stuttgart, the Max Born Vocational College in Recklinghausen and, previously, at Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences.

Within the Department of Thermodynamics and Process Engineering at the Faculty, Kai Masuch intends to focus on the thermodynamic evaluation of existing and future process technologies, assessing their sustainability in relation to their economic viability. Another key area of focus is the so-called ‘downstream management’ of renewable energy production – the recovery of usable materials from biological feedstocks – for example, the use of effluents as an energy-optimised recyclable material.

“I am particularly looking forward to working with the students, whom I have come to know during my time as a lecturer at the university as an international group who are extremely polite and hard-working,” says Kai Masuch. He sees his role in teaching and research as working together not only to modernise technological innovations economically, but also to make them sustainable.