: Dr. J. Rarey

I studied and graduated in Chemistry and did my PhD in Chemical Engineering. Built my first computer in the 3rd year of study and developed some interfacing to lab equipment and control software. Got fascinated by the possibilities of simulation and learned the importance of the correct description of basic phenomena on the outcome of simulations (garbage in - garbage out).

In 1989 near the end of my PhD study I moved to Oldenburg in northern Germany. Since April 1989 I have a permanent position at the University of Oldenburg (www.uni-oldenburg.de/tchemie) in the group of Prof. Gmehling.

In the same year I co-founded DDBST GmbH (www.ddbst.com). This company today is the most well known provider of thermophysical property data and estimation methods for process simulation and further applications in safety, environmental protection, ....

Since the 80's I teach many courses on applied thermodynamics for chemical process simulation for external participants from industry both in Oldenburg and in-house for companies in Europe, the US, Middle East, South Africa, Japan, ... (alone or together with Prof. Gmehling).

A further role in professional life is a honorary Prof. position in Durban, SA. Currently my group there consists of 4 MSc and one PhD student, all highly motivated. We developed and published estimation methods for a number of important properties like vapor pressure, liquid viscosity, water and alkane solubility, ... The first of our methods on normal boiling point is already generally regarded as the primary and best method available.

Professional Activities:

a) Researcher at the Chair of Industrial Chemistry, University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany (since 1989)

• lectures and tutorials in “Introduction to Industrial Chemistry”, “Chemical Processes”, Unit Operations” and “Reaction Engineering”
• lectures on software development and mathematical methods in chemical engineering, applied thermodynamics and physical property estimation
• regular courses in chemical process simulation using Aspen Plus
• project management and co-supervision of BSc, MSc and PhD students as well as guests
• regular courses “Fundamentals of Selection, Synthesis and Design of Thermal Separation Processes”
• research in the fields of quantum chemical estimation methods for thermophysical properties of pure components and mixtures
• research in the development of improved g^E mixing rules for equations of state
• support for the development of experimental setups for different types of measurements

b) Co-Founder and Managing Director of DDBST GmbH, Oldenburg, Germany

• supervision of software development
• customer support
• marketing, web server development, info material, product presentations
• development and regular improvement of a software package for the simultaneous correlation of different phase equilibrium and excess properties (RECVAL/3, sole developer)

c) Private Lecturer for Various Courses in German and English Language at Different Sites Worldwide (During the last 10 years about 600 participants from industry and further from academia took part in these courses, e.g. at Mitsubishi Chemical Company (Japan), DSM (The Netherlands), DOW Chemical (Germany), Ciba Speciality Chemicals (Switzerland), SABIC (Saudi Arabia), Lyondell (USA), EPCON (USA), RIPI (Iran) and many more.)

• Grundlagen zur Auswahl, Synthese und Auslegung thermischer Trennprozesse
• Fundamentals of Selection, Synthesis and Design of Thermal Separation Processes
• Thermodynamische Stoffdaten für die Synthese, Auslegung und Simulation chemischer Prozesse (DECHEMA, Frankfurt)
• DDB and Process Simulation
• DDB-DDBSP Introduction
• Advanced Physical Properties for Process Simulation

d) Honorary Research Fellow (since 2003) and Honorary Professor (2005 to 2013) at the School of Chemical Engineering, University of Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa (in Cooperation with Prof. Dr. D. Ramjugernath)

• Development of Physical Property Estimation Methods for
• normal boiling temperature (published, reported in Perry’s Handbook, recommended by DIPPR as primary method)
• vapor pressure as function of temperature (published)
• vapor-liquid critical data (published)
• liquid viscosity (published)
• surface tension (under development)
• thermal conductivity (under development)
• activity of complex molecules (pharmaceuticals, …) in common solvents (publication in preparation)
• Improvement of G^E Models by Non-Linear Transformation in Composition Space (published and in preparation)
• Adjustable Hybrid G^E Models for the Estimation of Phase Equilibria and Excess Properties for Process Simulation with Separated Treatment of Dispersive, Polar and Hydrogen-Bonding Interactions.
• Exact G^E Mixing Rule for Equations of State by G-Transformation
• Development of Computer-Operated Equipment for the Determination of Thermophysical Properties (in Cooperation with Dr. Paramespri Naidoo)

Further research interests are in the field of experimental determination of thermophysical properties, esp. with respect to the development of modern computer-operated equipment. In the past I had already developed a high precision static aparatus, which is now in nearly continuous use for about 20 years. Several further instruments have been constructed based on this design (LTP-Oldenburg, VLE AUTOLAB).

Scientific Papers

Research in Durban (SA)