CHAIRS OF ENERGY RESEARCH
Purpose:
- Assist the country in building on existing strengths to achieve the critical mass required for a major research endeavour in science, engineering policy and modelling of interest to the energy industry.
- Assist the development of research efforts in fields that have not yet been developed in South African universities but for which there is an important energy research and development need.
- Assist the development of strategic energy research that is directed by broad national or economic objectives. It is expected that this research, whether it is applied or basic research, will produce a broad base of knowledge for the solution of practicable problems.
- Create research career pathways for highly skilled, high quality, young and mid-career researches that effectively addresses historical, racial, gender and age imbalances.
Classes of Chair:
Senior Chair of Energy Research
A person who holds a professorship and has successfully undertaken outstanding and innovative research in energy and is of international stature can be appointed as a Senior Chair of Energy Research.
Associate Chair of Energy Research
The focus of this class of chair is on PDIs. A person who has a doctoral degree and demonstrated the potential to achieve international recognition in the energy field in the next five to ten years can be appointed as an Associate Chair.
CHAIRS AWARDED BY SANERI TO DATE
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Senior Chair of Clean Coal Technologies:
Prof. Rosemary Falcon - Email: falcons@icon.co.za University of the Witwatersrand Awarded: 31 st March 2006 |
Prof. Falcon focuses on clean coal technologies, carbon, by-product and downstream high-tech product characterisation; enhanced technical performance prediction; increased energy efficiency in coal beneficiation and utilisation processes; new process technologies including fluidised bed combustion; reduction of air pollutants including greenhouse gases; characterisation and utilisation of coal ash., the optimisation of small and large scale boiler performance, improved carbon reactivity in the metallurgical reduction processes.
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Senior Chair of Biofuels and Other Clean Alternative Fuels
Prof. Emile van Zyl - Email: whvz@sun.ac.za
Stellenbosch University
Awarded: 31 st March 2006 |
Prof. van Zyl’s research group will focus on second generation technologies for the biological conversion of biomass to biofuels particularly the use of yeast biotechnology. They will be looking at developing new production strains, process development on laboratory scale and process modeling”.
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Associate Chair of Biofuels and Other Clean Alternative Fuels
Prof. Sanette Marx - Email: Sanette.marx@nwu.ac.za
North-West University
Awarded: 31 st March 2006 |
Prof. Marx will be investigating first generation technologies for the conversion of maize to ethanol as well as the gelling of ethanol to produce alternative household fuels.