Ir. Pieter Swinkels
Managing Director EngD Programmes Chemical Product & Process Design (ChemE)
Pieter Swinkels is managing director of the post-MSc EngD designer programmes in chemical product and process design at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft). He is also the TU Delft coordinator in the 4TU.SAI (Stan Ackermans Institute) representing all EngD programmes in The Netherlands.
In these roles he develops (bio)chemical product/process design methodologies, teaches and applies these methodologies in MSc and EngD design projects in cooperation with industrial partners and knowledge institutes from his extensive industrial network. This cooperation bridging the ‘innovation through design’ link between the university’s research programmes and new product and process implementation in industry. The EngD-level product and process design cooperation with industrial partners span the whole width of the process industry (energy, food, fuels, health, (specialty) chemicals).
He teaches product and process design methodology, design thinking, design project execution, scale-up/scale-down of chemical processes to EngD trainees and MSc students.
Academic background
Pieter Swinkels obtained his Ir. (MSc.) Degree in chemical engineering (cum laude) at Technical University Eindhoven in 1986. His specializations were in (bio)process design, integration with separations and process control.
Driven by his interest to apply chemical engineering principals in industry and in fields adjacent to core chemical engineering he joined Unilever Research Laboratories in 1986. Sustainable raw materials sourcing and energy reduction were principals applied to consumer detergent products. As member of the Unilever R&D team he co-invented several detergent product formulations and manufacturing processes, that were scaled-up to production scale in Europe and the USA.
In 1991 he moved to Unilever’s specialty polymers division (later part of National Starch & Chemical Company and ICI – now Celanese and AkzoNobel). In this period, he worked in various positions in manufacturing, product & process design and development, and as divisional process development manager.
In 2001 he moved to TU Delft as Assistant Professor Product & Process Design & Engineering and later became responsible for the post-master EngD programmes in Chemical Engineering.
- +31 (0)15 27 84374
- P.L.J.Swinkels@tudelft.nl
-
Building 58, A2.060
Van der Maasweg 9
2629 HZ Delft
The NetherlandsManagement Assistant
Sabine Venema-Vanmechelen
+31 (0)15 27 86223
S.J.H.Venema-Vanmechelen@tudelft.nl
Keywords
EngD Programmes Chemical Product Design and Process Design
Design Thinking and Design Methodologies
Scale-up / Scale-down