The Institute for Micro Process Engineering IMVT (from the German name '' Institut für Mikroverfahrenstechnik'') is an institute within the Karlsruhe Research Center (''Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe'') in Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen,

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. Its main field of activity is micro process engineering, the science of conducting chemical and/or physical processes in confines with typical dimensions below 1 mm.

History and organization

The IMVT was formally established in July 2001 and continued previous activities in micro process engineering carried out by the Central Experimentation Department (''Hauptabteilung Versuchstechnik'', HVT) at the Karlsruhe Research Center. Its first director was Klaus Schubert. Between 1997 and 2001 the first activities, which were focused on developing and testing micro heat exchangers, were expanded by a new group (Head: Maximilian Fichtner) to chemical process engineering in microchannels, with a focus on fuel processing (methanol

steam reforming Steam reforming or steam methane reforming (SMR) is a method for producing syngas (hydrogen and carbon monoxide) by reaction of hydrocarbons with water. Commonly, natural gas is the feedstock. The main purpose of this technology is often hydrogen ...

, partial oxidation of methane), synthesis of chemicals and fundamental studies on new types of micro heat exchangers and heterogeneous catalysis under dynamic reaction conditions and in the Knudsen regime. In 2001, the entire activity was turned into a new institute, the IMVT. Professor Roland Dittmeyer assumed control of the institute in July 2009. The IMVT operates within the programs "Nano- and Microsystems" and "Sustainability and Technology" of the

Helmholtz Association The Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres () is the largest scientific organisation in Germany. It is a union of 18 scientific-technical and biological-medical research centers. The official mission of the Association is "solving the g ...

. Its staff initially consisted of about 40 employees (on 31 December 2001) and numbered approximately 50 in 2005.(German)
press release no. 13/2005 of Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, dated 6 July 2005 The institute carries out both basic development of apparatus (e.g. " microreactors") and processes, funded via the

and the

Research Center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentric ...

, as well as development projects in cooperation with and funded by industry.

References

External links

IMVT homepage
Micro Process Engineering IMVT {{engineering-stub