Dr.-Ing. Fabian Thygs
Curriculum Vitae
| Born | April 23rd, 1987 in Willich (Germany) |
| 1997-2006 | Maria-Sibylla-Merian-Gymnasium, Krefeld (Germany) |
| 2006-2012 | Biochemical Engineering Studies, TU Dortmund University, Diploma thesis: Conception of a capillary reactor in micro-/milli-scale concerning the process- and equipment-design for three-phase-systems (liquid-liquid-solid) and the computational research on the formation of the characteristic liquid-liquid slug flow using CFD-Simulation |
| 2012-2015 | PhD at the Laboratory of Plant and Process Design, TU Dortmund University, Field of research: Experimental-based development of downstream processes for biotechnological products for a systematic process design |
Field of Research
The manufacturing costs of biotechnological products accounts for a great amount of the purification steps during downstream processing. In order to reduce such costs, the Laboratory of Process and Plant Design works on different concepts for systematic development of downstream processes.
In this thesis the experimental-based approach for process synthesis is the focus of research. For a systematic development the use of experimental-based indicator-functions (so-called Key Performance Indicators, KPI) has proven successful to rate different purification steps technically and economically. Those indicators will be implemented into a systematic methodology to be used as optimizing parameter in experimental investigations. In order to generate reliable and reproducible experimental data, a semi-automated robotic platform is used (Zinsser Analytic). In this way, the KPIs in combination with robot-aided, automated experiments as well as the use of Design of Experiment (DoE)-approaches results in a comprehensive tool for systematic development of downstream processes.
For method development and evaluation the purification of biotechnological products is applied, for example the purification of rebaudioside A from the leaves of Stevia Rebaudiana
Publications
Dissertation
- F. Thygs
Automation Techniques to Support Experimental Investigation During Systematic Downstream Process Development
TU Dortmund, 2017, Verlag Dr. Hut, München ISBN 978-3-8439-3396-4
Paper
- F. Thygs, J. Merz, and G. Schembecker
Automation of Solubility Measurements on a Robotic Platform
Journal of Chemical and Engineering Technology 39 (2016) 1049-1057, doi.org/10.1002/ceat.201500572
Oral presentations
- F. Thygs, J. Merz, G. Schembecker
Automation Strategies in Downstream Process Development
11th International PhD Seminar on Chromatographic Separation Science, Sundern, Germany (2015)
- F. Thygs, C. Schulze, J. Merz, G. Schembecker
Downstream Process Development: Automation techniques to support experimental investigation
10th International PhD Seminar on Chromatographic Separation Science, Egmond aan Zee, Netherlands (2014)
- F. Thygs, St. Schuldt, J. Merz, G. Schembecker
Systematic Downstream Process Design: Automation techniques for the purification of natural products
9th International PhD Seminar on Chromatographic Separation Science, Weggis, Switzerland (2013)
Poster presentations
- F. Thygs, J. Merz, G. Schembecker
Miniaturization of Purification Strategies for Systematic Downstream Process Development
Scale-up and scale-down of bioprocesses, Hamburg, Germany (2015)
- F. Thygs, J. Merz, G. Schembecker
Downstream Process Development: Automation Technique to Integrate Operational Steps During Experimental Investigation
ProcessNet-Jahrestagung und 31. DECHEMA-Jahrestagung der Biotechnologen, Aachen (2014)