Our Experts
Meet our experts on direct air capture and storage. The expertise of the DACStorE Principal Investigators spans a wide range of disciplines, ranging from mechanical- and process engineering to systems analysis, social sciences and law.
Dr. Stefan Baumann
Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ)
Team leader at the division Gas Separation Membranes of the Institute of Energy Materials and Devices (IMD-2)
Dr. Stefan Baumann is a team leader for oxygen-permeable membranes at the IMD-2, FZJ. He received his diploma degree in metallurgy and materials engineering focussing on glass and ceramics at RWTH Aachen University. He then joined the Institute of Ceramic Components in Mechanical Engineering at RWTH Aachen University working on different topics in technical ceramics including thermal shock behaviour of novel refractories earning his Ph.D. in 2007. Since 2006, he is working at IEK-1 on materials synthesis and processing of gas separation membranes. From 2012 to 2015 he was appointed as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Chemical & Materials Engineering at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
Within DACStorE, he works on Sub-Project II "Device Research" which explores and compares three technical approaches to capture CO2 from the ambient air and their scale-up.
Dr. Paul Bowyer
Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon - Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS)
Scientist specializing in the climate change and transformation department
Dr. Paul Bowyer is a climate impacts and adaptation scientist at GERICS, working on climate change and transformation issues. His primary research areas include climate impacts and vulnerability in agriculture, forestry, and ecosystems, as well as the development of climate service products for decision-makers. He holds a PhD in Remote Sensing from the University of Salford and has an MSc in Geographical Information Systems from the University of Nottingham. Dr. Bowyer's previous work includes contributing to the EU Copernicus Climate Change Service and developing adaptation strategies for various sectors.
He works on Sub-Project III "Transformational Studies" which addresses the feasible characteristics needed for the roll-out of DACS technologies from a societal perspective.
Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Roland Dittmeyer
Karlsruher Institute of Technologie (KIT)
Professor for Micro Process Engineering, Director of the Institute for Micro Process Engineering, Scientifc Coordinator of the Energy Lab 2.0
Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Roland Dittmeyer has an academic background in Chemical Engineering. He held different positions at Erlangen-Nürnberg University and KIT. Since 2009 he is Full Professor and Head of the Institute for Micro Process Engineering at KIT. Previously he was with DECHEMA e.V. in Frankfurt am Main for more than 10 years, where he was head of the research group Technical Chemistry and member of the Board of Directors of the Karl-Winnacker-Institute. His research interests include catalytic reaction engineering, modelling and simulation in chemical engineering, multifunctional reactors, catalysis in fuel cells, inorganic membranes, micro process engineering, renewable energy, energy storage as well as carbon dioxide capture and utilization and synthetic fuels. At KIT, he is a member of the steering committee of the KIT Energy Center. He leads the large-scale project Energy Lab 2.0 of the Helmholtz Association. Moreover, he is the deputy spokesperson of the subprogram on Chemical Energy Storage of the EERA Joint Program on Energy Storage.
He works on Sub-Project II "Device Research" which explores and compares three technical approaches to capture CO2 from the ambient air and their scale-up.
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jochen Linßen
Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ)
Acting Head of the Institute of Energy and Climate Research, Jülich Systems Analysis (ICE-2)
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jochen Linßen is the Head of the Integrated Infrastructure Department and acting head of the Institute of the ICE-2, FZJ. He coordinates research on techno-economic modeling, energy infrastructure, sector coupling, renewable energy potential, and mobility. He holds a PhD from the Technical University of Berlin and has contributed significantly to the analysis and coordination of international research projects on hydrogen systems and energy storage technologies.
He works on Sub-Project I "Technology Assessment" which conducts a holistic assessment of DACS technology.
PD Dr. Till Markus
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ)
Deputy Head and Senior Scientist in the Department of Environmental and Planning Law
PD Dr. Till Markus has completed the different stages of his academic education with the First and Second Legal State Exams (Hannover), a postgraduate Master of Law (Rotterdam), a doctorate (Bremen), and a Habilitation (Bremen). From 2008 to 2018, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Research Centre for European Environmental Law at Bremen University’s Law Faculty and at the German Research Foundation’s excellence cluster MARUM (Bremen). Since early 2019 he has worked as a senior legal researcher at the Department for Environmental and Planning Law at the UFZ. He published and taught extensively in different areas of environmental law, international law, comparative law, and legal theory.
He works on Sub-Project III "Transformational Studies" which addresses the feasible characteristics needed for the roll-out of DACS technologies from a societal perspective.
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ralf Peters
Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ)
Acting Director Institute of Energy and Climate Research, Electrochemical Process Engineering (IET-4)
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ralf Peters is acting director of the Institute of Energy and Climate Research - Electrochemical Process Engineering (IET-4). He is professor at the Ruhr University Bochum, teaching process engineering for synthetic fuels. He studied mechanical engineering at the RWTH Aachen University from 1985 to 1990, majoring in process engineering. In 1995, he received his PhD from the Institute of Fluid and Thermodynamics at the University of SiegenThe experimental work led to several patents on working fluid mixtures for absorption chillers based on the three-substance mixture ammonia-water-sodium hydroxide. Since 1998 he has been head of the Fuel Gas Generation and Systems Department. Over the years, the focus shifted from propulsion technology to auxiliary power units (APU) and from APUs for passenger cars to APUs for aircraft and trucks. Due to the high sulfur content in kerosene, the topic of desulfurization was added to the research portfolio. From 2001 - 2023, Prof. Peters had been teaching in the English-language master's program "Energy Systems" at FH Aachen. From 2003 to 2005, Prof. Peters lectured on fuel cell technology at the Ruhr University in Bochum. In 2006, he was appointed professor at FH Aachen, Department of Energy Technology. Prof. Peters and his research group published more than 134 refereed publications, five books, 16 contributions to textbooks and more than 100 conference contributions to relevant meetings.
He works on Sub-Project II "Device Research" which explores and compares three technical approaches to capture CO2 from the ambient air and their scale-up.
Prof. Dr. Peter Strasser
Technische Universität Berlin (TUB)
Head of Electrochemical Catalysis, Energy, and Materials Science Laboratory Department
Prof. Dr. Peter Strasser is a leading expert in Electrochemistry and Electrocatalysis at TUB, where he holds a chair in the Chemical Engineering Division. He obtained his PhD in Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry from the Fritz-Haber-Institute of the Max-Planck-Society in Berlin. Prof. Strasser's research interests are in the development of catalytic materials, particularly in the areas of energy conversion and storage. He has held postdoctoral positions at Symyx Technologies Inc. and the University of Houston. Prof. Strasser has published extensively on topics such as fuel cells, hydrogen energy, and the electrochemical conversion of CO2.
He works on Sub-Project II "Device Research" which explores and compares three technical approaches to capture CO2 from the ambient air and their scale-up.
Dr. Cornelia Schmidt-Hattenberger
Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences (GFZ)
Leader of Geological Storage working group
Dr. Cornelia Schmidt-Hattenberger studied Physics at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena and finished her PhD in 1992 at the Faculty of Physics and Astronomy, Institute of Optics and Solid State Physics. In 1993, she joined the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), and worked as a scientist in different sections of the institute, as e.g., Scientific Instrumentation (1993-1997), Rock Mechanics (1998-2004), and Environmental Geotechnique (2005-2008). Since 2007, she worked continuously as senior scientist in the research area of geological CO2 storage and accompanied the first European on-shore CO2 storage pilot project in Ketzin (Brandenburg). Her research interest focused on multi-disciplinary monitoring methods for subsurface gas (CO2) migration detection as an important key component of safe and reliable underground storage technology. She is representing GFZ Potsdam in the EERA Joint Program CCS, and in the European association CO2GeoNet.
She works on Sub-Project I "Technology Assessment" which conducts a holistic assessment of DACS technology.
Dr.-Ing. Thomas Schöb
Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ)
Group Leader at the Institute of Climate and Energy Systems, Jülich Systems Analysis (ICE-2)
Dr.-Ing. Thomas Schöb is the Head of the "Energy Systems Transformation" Research Group and the Scientific Project Lead of the Helmholtz Research Project DACStorE at the ICE-2, FZJ. He earned his Bachelor's degree in Energy System Technology from Ulm University of Applied Sciences, followed by a Master's degree in Energy Engineering from the University of Stuttgart, focusing on wind energy, energy economics, and energy system analysis. His PhD from RWTH Aachen involved the model-based analysis of greenhouse gas neutral transformation strategies for Germany. Dr.-Ing. Thomas Schöb aims to contribute to the transformation of energy systems towards sustainability through his work and to identify pathways for achieving national and international climate targets. In addition, he focuses on the systemic analysis of technologies for providing negative emissions to compensate for hard-to-avoid emissions.
He is the scientific project coordinator of the DACStorE project and leads Sub-Project I 'Technology Assessment', which conducts a holistic evaluation of DACS technology.
Dr. Domenico Taraborrelli
Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ)
Group leader at the Institute of Energy and Climate Research Systems, Troposphere (ICE-3)
Dr. Domenico Taraborrelli studied Chemistry at the University of Pavia (2004) and obtained his PhD from the University of Mainz (2010) with a thesis written at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry on the influence of vegetation emissions on the oxidation capacity of the atmosphere. In 2015 he joined the ICE-3 at FZJ as post-doc. Since 2018 he is the head of the atmospheric modelling group at the same institute and active in advancing our understanding of the atmospheric composition and climate-chemistry interactions. He is also involved in projects on performance optimization and porting of code to new architectures of atmospheric chemistry models towards exascale computing with the facilities at the Jülich Supercomputing Center (JSC).
He works on Sub-Project I "Technology Assessment" which conducts a holistic assessment of DACS technology.
Priv. Doz. Dr. Manuel Tsotsalas
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Helmholtz Young Investigator Group Leader at the Institute of Functional Interfaces and at the Institute of Organic Chemistry
Priv. Doz. Dr. Manuel Tsotsalas studied chemistry at the University of Münster, where he obtained his diploma in 2006 and his PhD in 2010. After a DAAD funded postdoctoral stay at the University of Kyoto in Japan, he joined the Institute of Functional Interfaces at KIT as a group leader. In 2019, he completed his habilitation in organic chemistry from the faculty of Chemistry and Biosciences at KIT. Primarily he is working in the area of porous materials (MOFs, Zeolites, and porous organic polymers) as well as in the area of polymer networks. He received funding for his independent research group and was PI within the DFG funded cluster “molecular structuring of soft matter”, where he led an independent sub-project.
He works on Sub-Project II "Device Research" which explores and compares three technical approaches to capture CO2 from the ambient air and their scale-up.
Dr. Stefan Voegele
Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ)
Department Head and Senior Scientist at Institute of Energy and Climate Research, Juelich Systems Analysis (ICE-2)
Dr. Stefan Vögele studied economics at the University of Heidelberg. From 1994 to 2000 he worked as scientist in the Department “Environmental and Resource Economics, Environmental Management” at the Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung in Mannheim, Germany. Since 2000 he has been working at the ICE-2, FZJ. Primarily he is working in the area of energy economics with special focus on socio-economic scenarios. He successfully led several projects focusing on impacts of climate change on thermal power plants, on projects dealing with innovations processes in the energy system as well as on scenarios assessing possible future of the European electricity market.
He works on Sub-Project I "Technology Assessment" which conducts a holistic assessment of DACS technology.
Dr.-Ing. Petra Zapp
Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ)
Department Head and Senior Scientist at Institute of Energy and Climate Research, Juelich Systems Analysis (ICE-2)
Dr.-Ing. Petra Zapp received her PhD in Engineering from the University of Essen in the field of Life Cycle Assessments of fuel cells. She holds a Diploma in Energy and Process Engineering. Since 2015 she leads the group of technology assessment at the ICE-2. She has a long experience in the field of life cycle thinking and LCA. She is a member of national and international working groups in application and advancement of LCA methodology and has been task leader in European R&D projects.
She works on Sub-Project I "Technology Assessment" which conducts a holistic assessment of DACS technology.
