Jürgen Gmehling (born January 13, 1946 in
Duisburg
Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in No ...
) is a retired German
professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professor ...
of technical and industrial
chemistry at the
Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg
The Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg (german: Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg) is a university located in Oldenburg, Germany. It is one of the most important and highly regarded educational facilities in northwestern Germany ...
.
Biography
His career started with an apprenticeship as a laboratory assistant at the Duisburg copper works before he studied
chemical engineering
Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials in ...
at the engineering school in
Essen
Essen (; Latin: ''Assindia'') is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and ...
and then chemistry in
Dortmund
Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is th ...
and
Clausthal
Clausthal-Zellerfeld is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located in the southwestern part of the Harz mountains. Its population is approximately 15,000. The City is the location of the Clausthal University of Technology. The health resort ...
. He received his
diploma
A diploma is a document awarded by an educational institution (such as a college or university) testifying the recipient has graduated by successfully completing their courses of studies. Historically, it has also referred to a charter or offici ...
from the
University of Dortmund
TU Dortmund University (german: Technische Universität Dortmund) is a technical university in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany with over 35,000 students, and over 6,000 staff including 300 professors, offering around 80 Bachelor's and ...
in 1970 and his PhD (Dr. rer. nat.,
inorganic chemistry
Inorganic chemistry deals with synthesis and behavior of inorganic and organometallic compounds. This field covers chemical compounds that are not carbon-based, which are the subjects of organic chemistry. The distinction between the two disc ...
) in 1973. After this he worked as a scientific coworker in Dortmund before he became a private lecturer and, after his
habilitation
Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including ...
, an assistant professor.
Gmehling was appointed a full professor for technical chemistry at the
University of Oldenburg
The Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg (german: Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg) is a university located in Oldenburg, Germany. It is one of the most important and highly regarded educational facilities in northwestern German ...
in 1989 and retired in 2011.
Fields of research
Gmehling's main focus is the
process development
Process simulation is used for the design, development, analysis, and optimization of technical processes such as: chemical plants, chemical processes, environmental systems, power stations, complex manufacturing operations, biological processes, ...
. This includes the development of software for process synthesis and
process simulation
Process simulation is used for the design, development, analysis, and optimization of technical processes such as: chemical plants, chemical processes, environmental systems, power stations, complex manufacturing operations, biological processes, ...
as well as measurement, collection, and estimation of thermophysical properties of pure components and component mixtures. The following list summarizes fields of his scientific work but is in no way complete.
Measurements
* Phase equilibrium data (
vapor-liquid equilibria,
liquid-liquid equilibria, solid–liquid equilibria,
gas solubilities, heats of mixing, activity coefficients
and more)
Data collection
Gmehling began in the 1970s with the systematic evaluation of the scientific literature, aiming to build a data bank for vapor-liquid equilibria. These data were needed for the development of a new method for the prediction of activity coefficients named
UNIFAC. This data bank is still named the
Dortmund Data Bank
The Dortmund Data Bank (short DDB) is a factual data bank for thermodynamic and thermophysical data. Its main usage is the data supply for process simulation where experimental data are the basis for the design, analysis, synthesis, and optimizat ...
.
Development of estimation and correlation models
Gmehling developed with colleagues models for the estimation of several thermodynamic and thermophysical properties:
* Activity coefficient models like
UNIFAC (see also
group contribution method) and extensions. For the further development of these widely used methods Gmehling founded an
industry consortium where many international companies are participating.
* Equations of state (EOS)
including mixing rules for applying EOS to mixtures (see
PSRK).
Software development
The following implementation of his methods are also developments:
* an expert system
for the entrainer selection for the azeotropic and extractive distillation
Awards
Gmehling has received some awards:
* Arnold-Eucken Price in 1982
* The Rosini Lectureship Award in 2008
* The Gmelin-Beilstein-Denkmünze (Silver Medal) in 2010
* The Emil Kirschbaum Medal in 2013
Publications
Gmehling has published scientific articles and books.
Selection of scientific articles
External links
Chair at the University of OldenburgDDBST GmbHLTP GmbHUNIFAC consortium
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gmehling, Jurgen
1946 births
Living people
21st-century German chemists
People from Duisburg
Technical University of Dortmund alumni
Academic staff of the University of Oldenburg
Thermodynamicists
20th-century German chemists