The unit, starting in March 2013, comes at an opportune time as the university celebrates 140 years of shaping futures in Africa. But more than that, this year, the university also celebrates its future where it aims to become a leading global centre of excellence in science, research and innovation.

Two of South Africa’s prestigious scholars, Prof. David Glasser and Prof. Diane Hildebrandt, A1and B1 NRF-rated researchers respectively will head Unisa’s newly established Material and Process Synthesis (MaPS) research unit, where engineers and scientists will be trained to develop novel technical solutions that are suitable and applicable for Africa.

Heading this research and engineering solutions unit are two prestigious South African scholars, Professors David Glasser and Diane Hildebrandt, A1 and B1 NRF rated researchers respectively. The team’s combined research interests are mathematical modelling, processes synthesis, optimisation of chemical reactors and distillation, and reactor and distillation synthesis, all of which will form part of research conducted which will be conducted through the MaPS research unit.

“We would like to become a hub for South Africa and Africa where we train researchers from the continent in how to design and operate more energy efficient and competitive chemical processes. We also believe we are world leaders in our area of expertise and have an opportunity to sell, both intellectually and economically, our ideas to the rest of the world,” said Glasser and Hildebrandt.

The science behind the research

Describing process synthesis, the duo said the activity of determining the structure of process is process synthesis. Traditionally each unit operation in the chemical process was designed and optimised individually. And even though each unit was optimised, the overall process may have been far from optimal. “In recent years, more attention has been paid to the design of the overall process instead of individual units. But in designing the overall process, the designer is faced with many challenges. The designer not only has to choose the various steps (reaction, separation, mixing and so on) but also has to determine the best interconnection of these various steps. This activity is process synthesis … Process synthesis methods and tools can be applied to the design of new processes as well as to retrofit existing processes. The uses of these techniques lead to significant savings in capital and operating costs.”

Regarding reactor and distillation synthesis, Glasser and Hildebrandt said this is vital as current research in these areas focuses on the synthesis and optimisation of reaction and separation processes. Questions being examined vary from is there a process better than distillation for performing separations using only boiling, condensation and mixing; if all possible systems of reactors are considered, no matter how strange and complicated, what is the best system for a given set of homogeneous reactions, and when is reactive distillation better than the conventional reactor, distillation, recycle process? “Answering these questions involves the modelling of chemical reactors and separation processes. The objective of this modelling is to obtain general results for the optimal structure of chemical reactors and separation processes.”

Explaining the geometric interpretation of reaction and mixing, they said from this geometry, insights are gained into the types of reactors that make up optimal reactor structures, the way these reactors are connected and the complexity of the structure. “Many new interesting results have been found which are now being applied to industrially-important reactions such as the synthesis of ammonia and methanol.”

Glasser and Hildebrandt said the aim of the MaPS research unit is to train postgraduate students by undertaking fundamental research in such areas to develop the latest cutting-edge methodologies and techniques that synthesise, integrate and optimise processes that support sustainable industrial practice. “In particular, by using the results of the research from MaPS and other researchers around the world, we will be able to rapidly transfer the latest research concepts to industry to set up a win-win situation. In order to implement these ideas we are working with industry and government departments like the departments of trade and industry and science and technology to build small scale containerised plants to make fuel and electricity from waste materials, which include amongst others, garbage, plastic, tyres, and farming waste.”

Using energy reserves effectively and efficiently

The researchteam said Africa has inherited energy reserves, in the form of fossil fuels, and these reserves are our, and future generations’ inheritance. “We need to use these reserves wisely as they are limited and took millions of years to form. We also believe that we should try in our research to see how we can use this reserve of energy more effectively and efficiently.”

Explaining the importance of using the energy reserves wisely, theysaid the reason is two-fold. “Firstly, if we use this inheritance unwisely, we produce much more pollution, in particular carbon dioxide, than we need to produce for a given amount of energy or chemicals. This in turn causes more greenhouse gas emissions, which cause more global warming. The impact of global warming is predicted to be most severe on the poorest of the poor, which includes many of Africa’s people. So, by our inefficient use of our fossil fuels, we are harming the poor on our continent by causing drought and famine indirectly by increased carbon dioxide emissions.”

Theyadded that chemical processes that produce more carbon dioxide than necessary use more of the limited resources and also generally have higher operating and running costs. “If we can design processes that are inherently more efficient, we can reduce the use of our scarce natural resources and produce processes that are cheaper to build and cheaper to operate. In this way we can make Africa economically competitive as well as try to protect the poor against the effects of the environment.”

Collaborative research said the team is also vital within the research unit. “For example, partnering with scholars from BRICS countries would prove significant because the work we are doing is most applicable to developing countries and therefore it would be most relevant to BRICS countries to develop and share knowledge … We are also always keen to collaborate with other areas such as biotechnology and catalysts and with other universities in order to disseminate our ideas and research. As we work on the system as a whole we are always looking for others who have complementary skills.”

With a background in chemical engineering, Professor David Glasser has focused much of his research in the areas of kinetics, thermodynamics, modelling and optimisation. More specifically, his work has focussed on using temperature to measure chemical kinetics, the development of homotopy, variational and optimisation problems, spontaneous combustion modelling and applying these latter ideas to industry in South Africa and Australia.In addition, together with Professor Diane Hildebrandt, he helped develop a new method for optimising chemical reactors, called the Attainable Region (AR) method, and applied  it to biomedical research such as interpreting imaging experiments, heparin removal in blood and the development of an artificial liver. They also worked on the development of the Column Profile Map (CPM) method for distillation design, described as “one of the three most important developments in distillation over the last decade”, and the kinetics of the Fischer-Tropsch reaction used in the oil-from-coal process.Most recently their work has been on process synthesis, a way, using fundamental thermodynamics, to design flow-sheets for chemical plants in order to minimise carbon dioxide emissions and improve the efficient use of raw materials. Invited articles on this topic appeared in Science and the American Institution of Chemical Engineers Journal in 2009.Glasser obtained his BSc in chemical engineering from the University of Cape Town and his PhD from the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine in London. His work has led to him being co-granted three important patents for improving chemical plant efficiency, improving carbon efficiencies in hydrocarbon production and the production of synthesis gas.He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Bill Neale-May Gold Medal from the South African Institution of Chemical Engineering (SAIChE) in 2000, the Harry Oppenheimer Memorial Gold Medal and Fellowship in 2002, the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) Science-for-Society Gold Medal in 2006 and the NSTF-Billiton Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. At the end of 2012 he received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of the Witwatersrand.He has published more than 215 journal and scientific papers in peer-reviewed and refereed publications such as, amongst others, Fuel, the AIChE Journal, Chemical Engineering Science, Industrial and Engineering Research, Topics in Catalysis and Water SA. He has served as associate editor of the Chemical Engineering Journal from 1980 to 2002, as editor of the Kluwer international Serieson chemical engineering from 1998 to 2003 and as a reviewer for various international journals including those mentioned above.As an invited conference presenter, he has presented his work at the Dutch Chemical Engineering Congress, World Coal-To-Oil Conference, FOCAPD and the Process Development Symposium. A book which he co-authored, Membrane Process Design Using Residue Curve Maps, was published by Wiley USA in 2011. Another Wiley book, Column Profile Maps, was published in 2013.Glasser is a Fellow of the South African Institute of Chemical Engineering, the Royal Society of South Africa, the South African Academy of Engineering, a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa, and the American Institution of Chemical Engineering. He has been a visiting professor at City College in New York and the University of Houston, USA as well as at the University of Waterloo, Canada. In addition he has been a Hooker Distinguished Visiting Professor at McMaster University, Canada, a Fulbright Scholar at Princeton University, USA, a visiting scholar at the University of Sydney, Australia and President of the South African Institute of Chemical Engineering.

Professor Diane Hildebrandt is the first woman chemical engineer to be awarded an A-rating by South Africa’s National Research Foundation. She and her colleague, Professor David Glasser were jointly awarded the Bill Neale-May Gold Medal by the South African Institute of Chemical Engineers. This was the first time the award had been made to an academic.She obtained her BSc, MSc and PhD from the University of the Witwatersrand. She has authored or co-authored over 115 journal and scientific papers and has supervised 77 postgraduate students. She has received 306 citations in the last three years and has been both a plenary speaker and invited speaker at numerous local and international conferences.She was awarded the Presidents’ Award by the Foundation for Research and Development as well as the Distinguished Researcher Award by the University of the Witwatersrand in 1996.  In 1997 she became the first engineer to be awarded the Meiring Naudé Medal Royal Society of South Africa. In 1998, Hildebrandt became the first woman in South Africa to be made a full professor of Chemical Engineering when she was appointed as the Unilever Professor of Reaction Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand.In 2002 she was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa and also received the Vice-Chancellor’s Research Award of the University of the Witwatersrand. In 2003, she became the first woman professor of chemical technology in the Netherlands when she was appointed as a part-time Professor of Process Synthesis, University of Twente, The Netherlands. In 2005 she was recognised as a world leader in her area of research when she was awarded an A rating by the National Research Foundation. Also in 2005, she was elected to the Academy of Sciences of South Africa and in 2006 to the Academy of Engineering of South Africa. In 2009 Hildebrandt was the winner of the Distinguished Woman Scientist Award of the Department of Science and Technology of South Africa and was also winner of the Continental African Union Scientific Awards for the category Basic Science, Technology and Innovation.Hildebrandt and her co-workers were finalists in 2010 in the 10XE Competition run by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, which recognises innovations internationally that are likely to have a ten-fold impact on energy efficiency.  They were also the winners of the National Science and Technology Award for NGO’s in recognition of the research and implementation of these ideas in the same year.  Hildebrandt was awarded the ASSAf Gold Medal for Science in Society in 2010.She has worked at the Chamber of Mines, Sasol and the University of Potchefstroom and has spent a sabbatical at Princeton. She has taught causes in thermodynamics, reactor design, transport phenomena, hydrometallurgy, chemical engineering principles, residue curves for distillation, reactor synthesis, process synthesis, and basic chemical engineering for chemists.Her research area is the design of energy efficient processes and equipment, with the view to reducing carbon dioxide emissions from chemical processes. Some of these ideas have successfully been implemented. The Centre of Material and Process Synthesis (COMPS) which she co-founded and served as Director until February 2013, designed and commissioned the Golden Nest FT pilot plant in Baoji, China. COMPS was also responsible for the conceptual and reactor design for the Linc FT plant in Chinchilla in Australia. Hildebrandt’s current appointment is within the South African Research Chair of Sustainable Process Engineering.

What is bush tea? Why is research on high-value crops vital and how has Unisa academe contributed to such research? What is the botanical and medicinal significance of bush tea, what role does it play in our everyday lives? And can such research be integrated with the National Industry Policy Framework and New Growth Path? These key questions formed part of Prof. Fhatuwani Mudau’s inaugural lecture on 13 March. Pictured are Prof. Maggi Linington (Executive Dean: College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences), Prof. Fhatuwani Mudau (Department of Agriculture and Health: College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences), Prof. Rita Maré (Vice-Principal Academic: Teaching and Learning), and Dr Khayalethu Ntushelo (Department of Agriculture and Health: College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences).

Another Unisa researcher has contributed to fundamental knowledge production and guidance for the country and continent, this time in the field of agricultural sciences, with specific reference to the herbal tea industry.

In delivering his inaugural lecture on High-value crops as a strategic focus area for the National Industry Policy Framework and New Growth Path: Prospects for future industrialisation, Professor Fhatuwani Mudaufrom the Department of Agriculture and Health saidfindings from his research on the herbal tea industry, in particular, bush tea (Athrixia phylicoides DC), revealed that it could become a commercial product in South Africa leading to the establishment of a new beverage and medicinal industry.

The herbal tea industry, he said, was a targeted sector within the Department of Trade and Industry’s (dti) National Industrial Policy Framework (NIPF), and its developmental role specifically relates to the beneficiation of a unique, indigenous natural resource – with a natural competitive advantage – with significant export potential.

Could bush tea be this unique, indigenous natural resource the NIPF speaks of? According to Mudau’s research, which is extensive and has been published in scientific journals, the answer is yes. “These initial works have a potential for the establishment of a huge herbal tea industry in South Africa. We believe that the quality of bush tea can be improved with the application of judicial agronomic management … The ultimate vision of this bush tea research is to commercialise bush tea with the aim of creating a new industry and jobs in rural areas, thus making science a major driver of job creation.”

Mudauexplained that high-value crops – with specific reference to bush tea – position themselves as a strategic focus in the NIPF and the NGP, highlighting key objectives such as facilitating diversification beyond the economy’s current reliance on traditional commodities and non-tradable services, promoting a labour-absorbing industrialisation path, with the emphases on tradable labour-absorbing goods and services and economic linkages that create employment, and promoting industrialisation, characterised by increased participation of historically disadvantaged people and marginalised regions in the industrial economy.

“The development of the new industry will aim at supporting the growth and development of the economy considering the South African national key priority areas … We see the agro-industry sector as a major economic drive as compared to other sectors in the economy, despite the challenges that the sector is experiencing in the Western Cape and other parts of South Africa. To the employers of this sector in the country, we cannot build over the years, and destroy.”

In addition to the economic impacts of his research, Mudau’s lecture also explored the botanical and medicinal significance of bush tea. Medicinal significance, amongst other things, includes purifying blood and treating boils, headaches, infested wounds, and coughs and colds.

Bush tea (Athrixia phylicoides DC)

He also explained the importance of his research on furthering the information available on the herbal tea industry. “In pursuit of knowledge and the foundation of building wealth for ordinary South Africans, I have no doubt that this project will contribute towards the creation of wealth as well as providing the health benefits for which this plant species is known. In line with the social mandate of Unisa, this project can play a critical role in the economic and social transformation of our country.”

Mudau said while bush tea research is relatively new, the theories he has developed have been cited extensively. “To date, we boast 91 citations and a Hirsch index of six. I have no doubt that bush tea research has immensely contributed to the creation of new knowledge in my field and has also established my reputation as a researcher.”

He added: “The work done on bush tea can form the basis of research in other South African herbal teas such as honeybush tea and Cape rooibos. Currently, the honeybush and rooibos tea industries are struggling to formulate agronomic management strategies, and this poses a threat to their growth. The current approach of the bush tea research is based on the investment guidelines of the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), for which I had the privilege to work as a scientist and dealmaker. The current model can also be emulated by other industries of high-value crops.”

Bush tea (Athrixia phylicoides DC) is a plant indigenous to South Africa and is commonly known as bushman’s tea (English), Boesmanstee (Afrikaans), Icholocholo, itshelo, umthsanelo (Zulu). It is an herbaceous plant that belongs to the Asteraceae family.

People of South Africa have predominantly used it throughout history as a medicinal tea, for cleansing or purifying the blood, treating boils, headaches, infested wounds, cuts and the solution may also be used as a foam bath. The foam bath brew can also be used as lotion dabbed on to the boil, skin eruption or cut.

The tea is also excellent for coughs and colds and as a gargle for throat infections and loss of voice. It is also believed to have aphrodisiac properties in some parts of southern Africa. (In Tshivenda, bush tea is known as mutshaila muri u sa liwi nga khombe, which means the plant which is not supposed to be eaten by bachelors.) The leaves contain 5-hydroxy-6,7,8,3’,4’,5’-hexamethoxy flavon-3-ol as a new flavonol which is a recently discovered flavonoid.

Today, herbal tea cultivation is a big business in many parts of the world. South Africa is well known for its indigenous herbal tea production such as honey bush, rooibos and bush tea. There are increasing demands for such products, especially in the light of growing health consciousness worldwide. This has seen the establishment and revival of bush tea as a healthy herbal beverage alternative to caffeine-containing beverages.

Prof. Srinivasu Vallabhapurapu (College of Science, Engineering and Technology), is a winner of the 2012 Innovation Award and incumbent of the newly established Unisa Research Chair in Superconductivity Technology.

The difference between a small unknown university and a big league university like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Harvard University, the University of Cambridge, and Princeton University is research and innovation, something Unisa’s executive management is committed to building and sustaining said Professor Srinivasu Vallabhapurapu, incumbent of the newly established Unisa Research Chair in Superconductivity Technology.

“And I am glad that as Unisa enters its 140^th year of shaping futures, our leadership, Professor Makhanya, (Principal and Vice-Chancellor) and Professor Phakeng (Vice-Principal: Research and Innovation) have a very strong vision and are very serious about building this component, research and innovation at our university.”

As one of the recipients of the 2012 Unisa Innovation Award, Vallabhapurapu, from the College of Science, Engineering and Technology, said he is excited and driven to be a part of the evolution of research and knowledge production taking place at Unisa. “The Research and Innovation portfolio and our Dean of CSET provide us with great support. And while awards are always good, it is the spirit of the research and innovation portfolio that is very encouraging and supportive for scholars.

“Adding to that is the camaraderie amongst all academic and administrative staff in our college who work like a family, sharing the ups and downs of both their academic and personal lives. I must say that the administrative staff really help and support academics and our activities, ignoring the just work-to-rule kind of attitude. This culture at Unisa is simply great, possible through Unisa’s great leadership, and we should strive for all departments to have this work ethic if we are to become the hub of scientific knowledge we aim for.”

Superconductivity technology relevant for Africa

It is this level of support for research that motivated Vallabhapurapu to assume responsibility of establishing a research platform in South Africa for superconductivity technology. Explaining the relevancy of a chair in this field, he said the chair will focus on enhancing the research platform of superconductivity science and technology for the development of energy-saving technologies. Superconductivity technology, he added, offers great energy savings, in hundreds of billions of dollars, and minimisation of energy wastage as compared to any technology, which is why first-world countries are pushing it.

“Current renewable energy technologies have not grown to an optimum level where they can replace the traditional ones. At the same time the traditional ones are also not producing enough energy. This produces a strategic gap between production and utilisation. The demand for energy is ever increasing and production is not able to meet the demand. In these circumstances of ‘energy crisis’ worldwide and in particular South Africa, energy storage and energy-saving strategies are gaining in significance.”

The proposed research programme for the Chair in Superconductivity Technology has applied research activity, and fundamental research activity to support the former. “The applied activities will include an African superconducting cable and a superconducting flywheel for energy storage … It is important to note that understanding the fundamental properties is very important while we tailor the superconducting materials that will be used in the these mentioned applications. We will research fundamental properties of high temperature superconductivity in both existing and newly discovered superconductors, and superconductivity in novel systems.

“We will also be developing as bi-products of this primary focus, areas related to superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) based medical imaging and advanced electronics, as well.”

SA riding the superconductivity wave

The Unisa Research Chair in Superconductivity Technology forms part of the Unisa Research Chairs Programme. The programme, which comes at an opportune time in Unisa’s 140 year history, is designed to help the university achieve research excellence in different disciplines and will play an important role in building on Unisa’s growing reputation as a key player in research and innovation in South Africa and internationally.

Another main aim of the chair, said Vallabhapurapu, is to make South Africa ready by 2020 to ride the superconductivity wave. He believes that establishing this research platform is very important and urgent because this will help SA to get ready to embrace superconductivity technology by 2020 when this technology penetrates energy markets.

“It will be a unique platform in the country, which will help develop skills and build capacity in this area. Thus, Unisa will be a hub of activity for superconductivity niche-area research in the country, building a network with other universities that will integrate related technologies into superconductivity research. We not only want to build capacity in this highly advanced area, but, by 2020, South Africa should be one of the key international players in this technology, and by then, Unisa will be the vehicle equipped with expertise, manpower, equipment and international reputation to ride this wave.”

Vallabhapurapu, together with Professor Wei Hua Ho from CSET, filed Unisa’s first successful patent on a method and apparatus for treating a fluid. In addition to his water research, other work includes fundamental studies using electron spin resonance and low field microwave absorption in nanomagnetic systems, spintronic and novel magnetic systems and superconducting materials, materials for fuel cells, nano-Josephson-junctions for quantum bit applications in quantum computing, novel memory systems, and nano and micro lithography using atomic force microscopy and lasers.