Germany's best process engineering thesis 2025 comes from TUBAF
Tom Goldberg, graduate of the Diploma Programme in Process Engineering and Chemical Engineering and now a doctoral student at the Institute of Thermal-, Environmental- and Resources' Process Engineering at TUBAF, receives the student award of DECHEMA Gesellschaft für Chemische Technik und Biotechnologie e.V. His thesis is one of the three most outstanding theses in the fields of technical chemistry, process engineering or biotechnology at German universities.
The thesis entitled: "Experimental determination and theoretical calculation of solubilities of an insect fat in compressed carbon dioxide" deals with a method of protein production in which insect larvae are bred on waste materials and proteins are obtained from them. Tom Goldberg has analysed the fat residue produced during the processing of the larvae in more detail. He proposes an innovative method for further processing the raw fat: purification with compressed CO2. Insect fat purified in this way could become an alternative to palm oil in the food, pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries. Tom Goldberg recently published partial results of the research in the Journal of Supercritical Fluids.
The DECHEMA Student Award
The prize is not only associated with financial support, but also includes participation in two DECHEMA conferences. This gives the award winner direct access to and valuable visibility in the specialist community. At the same time, the award underlines the outstanding quality of process engineering degree programmes at TUBAF.
