Congratulations to Dr. Jelle Wouter Bos on an Excellent PhD Defense, during which he successfully defended his PhD thesis, supervised by Prof. Bert Weckhuysen and Prof. Eelco Vogt.

In his PhD thesis, Jelle developed more efficient methods for producing C18 branched saturated fatty acids used in personal health products. He investigated zeolite catalysts for removing γ-stearolactone, demonstrating that the ratio of Brønsted to Lewis acid sites, rather than total acidity, was key to the reaction’s success. He demonstrated that attenuated total reflectance infrared spectroscopy can effectively monitor lactone reactions at elevated temperatures and pressures, utilizing statistical methods to predict reaction progress despite temperature-induced signal variations. Finally, he developed a fluorescence spectroscopy-based methodology for monitoring industrial fatty acid hydrogenation, discovering that fluorescent impurities (likely polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) in the feedstock could serve as indicators of hydrogenation progress, potentially allowing industrial reactors to predict when reactions would be complete.

Jelle’s PhD thesis is available to read here.