Christian Ludwig

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Adjunct Professor

christian.ludwig@epfl.ch +41 21 693 76 78

Citizenship: Swiss

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0718-8195

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Google scholar ID for EPFL-PSI professorship

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+41 21 693 76 78
Office: GR A2 424
EPFL > ENAC > IIE > GR-LUD

Web site: Web site: https://www.psi.ch/cpm

+41 56 310 26 96
Office: GR A2 424
EPFL > ENAC > ENAC-SSIE > SSIE-ENS

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Administrative data

Fields of expertise

Solid Waste Treatment with a focus on Chemical Processes and Materials in thermal as well as aqueous systems
- Waste and Bioenergy Technology development
- Synthesis and Characterization (incl. Synchrotron Methods) of Nano-Particle-based materials for biofuel synthesis, gascleaning, and other CleanTech applications
- Development of Analytical Devices and Methods for on-line and in-situ investigations
- Analyzing, Modeling, and Controlling the Fate of Trace Elements and (Nano-)Particles in waste and biofuel applications
- Natural Resources Management
- Recycling of Minerals, Metals (incl. REEs), and Nutrients

Mission

The technological development in the last 100 years has strongly increased the demands for energy and materials and this is increasingly affecting the natural materials cycles. Within the general subject of sustainable resources management our group is contributing to the technology development in the following fields:

- New materials for resource efficient (energy) technologies
- Controlling the fate of valuable and/or harmful materials
- Recycling, recovery and reuse of raw materials

In this context nanoparticles and nanoobjects, their synthesis, fate, physical-chemical characterization and behavior, are of particular interest.

Environmental sciences and research investigate and describe the natural processes and try to quantify the influence of human activities. From this it is possible to derive the aims for an environmentally sound course of action. Afterwards, implementation on the technological, political and social level is necessary. In coordination with the industrial sector, the authorities issue guidelines and adapt laws. In the past a series of environmental standards have been implemented. However, such improvements are based on state-of-the-art technologies, as they can only be realized under economically acceptable boundary conditions. Often a technological gap remains between the desirable goals and the practicable solutions. It is our mission to fill or at least to minimize such technological gaps.

Current work

Recent work focussed on
* nucleation and crystallization processes *
* size-resolved elemental anaylysis of gasborne nanoparticles *
* sorption processes for the cleaning of gases and fluids *
* recovery of rare earth elements and phosphor from wastes and residues *
* algal biomass and its applications for waste water treatment, biofuels and chemicals *

Biography

2005 - today:
Adjunct Professor at EPFL and head of the joint EPFL-PSI Professorship in Solid Waste Treatment, consisting of the Ludwig Group (GR-LUD) at EPFL and the Chemical Processes and Materials research group (CPM) at PSI.

2000 - today:
Head, Group of Chemical Processes and Materials (CPM) at Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in the Laboratory for Energy and Materials Cycles (LEM). In 2009 the LEM unit was closed and the CPM group was affiliated to the Bioenergy and Catalysis Laboratory (LBK) of the Energy and Environment Research Division (ENE). In 2023 LBK changed the name to become the Laboratory for Sustainable Energy Carriers and Processes and in 2024 PSI has decided to replace the divisions by PSI Centers. CPM is now affiliated to the PSI Center for Energy and Environmental Sciences (CEE).
Since June 2002 permanent position ("tenure").

1997 - 1999:
Senior Scientist. Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI), General Energy Research Department, Element Cycles Section.

1995 - 1997:
Research Fellow. Swiss Federal Institute for Environmental Science and Technology (EAWAG), Department of Resource and Waste Management.

1993 - 1995:
Post-doc Fellow. University of California Davis, Department of Land, Air, and Water Resources (LAWR).

1990 - 1993:
PhD Student. University of Berne, Department of Inorganic, Analytical, and Physical Chemistry.

1989 - 1990:
Master Student. University of Berne, Department of Inorganic, Analytical, and Physical Chemistry.

Publications

Infoscience publications

Solid Waste Treatment on InfoScience

Density and phase-purity of α-TCP obtained by sintering of nano-crystalline powder

C. Stähli; A. J. Salinas; N. Döbelin; A. Testino; M. Bohner

Ceramics International. 2024. DOI : 10.1016/j.ceramint.2023.07.068.

Ludwig, Chr. and Valdivia, S. (Eds.) Book, a publication of World Resources Forum, printed by Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen PSI, (2019) - 232 pages (ISBN 978-3-9521409-8-7)	Progress towards the Resource Revolution
Ludwig, Chr. and Matasci, C. (Eds.) Book, a publication of World Resources Forum, printed by Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen PSI, (2017) - 429 pages	Boosting Resource Productivity by Adopting the Circular Economy
Ludwig, Chr. and Casey, W.H. Book chapter, in: Encyclopedia of Geochemistry, White, W.M. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series, Springer International Publishing, 1-5 (2017), ISBN: 978-3-319-39193-9	Surface Geochemistry
Worrell, W.A., Vesilid, P.A., Ludwig, Chr. Book, Cengage Learning (2017) - 499 pages	Solid Waste Engineering - A Global Perspective
Worrell, W.A., Vesilind, P.A., Ludwig, Chr. Book, Cengage Learning (2017) - 499 pages	Solid Waste Engineering - A Global Perspective, SI Edition (3e)
Ludwig, Chr., Matasci, C., Edelmann, X. (Eds.) Book, A publication of World Resources Forum, printed by Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen PSI, 2015 - 351 pages	Natural Resources - Sustainable Targets, Technologies, Lifestyles and Governance
Ludwig, Chr., Lehmann, M., Edelmann, X. (Eds.) Special Issue (Part II), in Science Of The Total Environment, vol. 481, 637ff, Elsevier, 2014	Shaping the Future of Natural Resources
Ludwig, Chr., Lehmann, M., Edelmann, X. (Eds.) Special Issue (Part I), in Science Of The Total Environment, vol. 461, 773ff, Elsevier, 2013.	How to do with less - Shaping the Future of Natural Resources
Edited by Edelmann X. and Ludwig Chr. A publication of Empa - 58 pages	Book of Abstracts, World Resources Forum 2011 (WRF 2011)
Edited by Mishra, B., Ludwig, Chr., Das, S. A publication of TMS - 1849 pages	Proceedings of the 2008 Global Symposium on Recycling, Waste Treatment and Clean Technology (REWAS 2008)
Ludwig, Chr., Hellweg, S., Stucki, S. Book, Springer (2003) - 534 pages	Municipal Solid Waste Management - Strategies and Technologies for Sustainable Solutions
Ludwig, Chr., Hellweg, S., Stucki, S. Brochure, Synthesis of the knowledge gained during the Integrated Project Waste of the Priority Program Environment (Swiss National Science Foundation 1996-1999), Villigen PSI (2000) - 32 pages	Directing Material Fluxes, Advances in Municipal Solid Waste Management and Technology
Wochele, J., Ludwig, Chr., Stucki, S., Auer, P. O., Schuler, A. J. Book chapter, in: Forschung für eine nachhaltige Abfallwirtschaft, Eds. S. Stucki et al., ISBN 3-9521409-1-0, Villigen, Switzerland, Eigenverlag Paul Scherrer Institut und Schweizerischer Nationalfonds (1999)	Abfall- und Rückstandsbehandlung: Grundlagen zur thermischen Schwermetallseparation
Casey, W. H., Ludwig, Chr., Holmén, B. Book chapter, in: Proceedings of the Rome Seminar on Environmental Geochemistry, Castelnuovo di Porto 22-26 Maggio 1996, Eds. Marini L. and Ottonello G., Pacini Editore, Pisa (1998)	Towards Understanding the Rates of Reactions at Mineral Surfaces
Casey, W. H., Ludwig, Chr. Book chapter, In: Chemical Weathering Rates of Silicate Minerals, Eds. White, A. F., and Brantley S. L., Reviews in Mineralogy Vol. 31, Ser. Ed. Ribbe, H. P., Mineralogical Society of America, BookCrafters Inc (1995)	Silicate Mineral Dissolution as a Ligand-Exchange-Reaction

Christian Ludwig

Adjunct Professor

Fields of expertise

Mission

Current work

Biography

Publications

Infoscience publications

Solid Waste Treatment on InfoScience

Density and phase-purity of α-TCP obtained by sintering of nano-crystalline powder

Continuous Supercritical Water Impregnation Method for the Preparation of Metal Oxide on Activated Carbon Composite Materials

Dilution versus fractionation: Separation technologies hyphenated with spICP-MS for characterizing metallic nanoparticles in aerosols

Rotating disk diluter hyphenated with single particle ICP-MS as an online dilution and sampling platform for metallic nanoparticles characterization in ambient aerosol

Print-Light-Synthesis of Gold Thin Film Electrodes for Electrochemical Sensing

Methods and devices for cultivating coenocytic algae

Breaking Down the Performance Losses in O2-Evolution Stability Tests of IrO2-based Electrocatalysts

Surfactant-based enrichment of rare earth elements from NdFeB magnet e-waste: Optimisation of cloud formation and rare earths extraction

Simple method for Cr(VI) determination by liquid-liquid microextraction combined with total reflection X-ray fluorescence spectrometry: Application to water samples and industrial extracts

Aerosol-into-liquid capture and detection of atmospheric soluble metals across the gas–liquid interface using Janus-membrane electrodes

Examination of commercial ceramic coatings for the electrical insulation of Bi-2212 wire

A long-term study on structural changes in calcium aluminate silicate hydrates

The Kinetics of Adsorption and Desorption of Selected Semivolatile Hydrocarbons and H2O Vapor on Two Mineral Dust Materials: A Molecular View

Effective removal of the rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus from a Chlorella vulgaris microalgal culture by homogeneous solar photo-Fenton at neutral pH

Opportunities in Critical Rare Earth Metal Recycling Value Chains for Economic Growth with Sustainable Technological Innovations

High-Throughput Sizing, Counting, and Elemental Analysis of Anisotropic Multimetallic Nanoparticles with Single-Particle Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry

Flowing Gas Experiments Reveal Mechanistic Details of Interfacial Reactions on a Molecular Level at Knudsen Flow Conditions

Standard-Free Quantification of Dicarboxylic Acids: Case Studies with Salt-Rich Effluents and Serum

An elution-based method for estimating efficiencies of aerosol collection devices not affected by their pressure drops

Integrated Aerodynamic/Electrochemical Microsystem for Collection and Detection of Nanogram-level Airborne Bioaccessible Metals

RB714, RB715, RB716, RB717 and RB718 antibodies recognize the histone HMtA protein from Methanobrevibacter smithii by ELISA

Platinum and Cerium-Zirconium Oxide Co-Doped Membrane for Mitigated H2 Crossover and Ionomer Degradation in PEWE

Particle Size Effects in Ru/CNF Catalysts during Supercritical Water Gasification of Glycerol

Insights about inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy interferences of major rare earth elements in complex e-waste feeds

Separation and Recycling Potential of Rare Earth Elements from Energy Systems: Feed and Economic Viability Review

Enhancing Algae Biomass Production by Using Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells as Filters

Coexistence of reactive functional groups at the interface of a powdered activated amorphous carbon: a molecular view

Elemental and Thermo-gravimetric Characterization of Trace Metals in Leaves and Soils as Bioindicators of Pollution in Kyiv City

Sampling, on-line and off-line measurement of organic silicon compounds at an industrial biogas-fed 175-kWe SOFC plant

Algal cellulose, production and potential use in plastics: Challenges and opportunities

Rapid Noninvasive Skin Monitoring by Surface Mass Recording and Data Learning

Soft-probe-scanning electrochemical microscopy reveals electrochemical surface reactivity of E. coli biofilms

Detection of trace metals in biogas using extractive electrospray ionization high-resolution mass spectrometry

Investigating active phase loss from supported ruthenium catalysts during supercritical water gasification

Cultivation of microalgae at high-density with pretreated liquid digestate as a nitrogen source: Fate of nitrogen and improvements on growth limitations

Robust and sustainable cultivation of microalgae: recycling of nitrogen from liquid digestate and control of biological contamination

The effect of alkali hydroxides and equilibration time on Al uptake by calcium silicate hydrates (C-S-H)

Understanding Degradation Effects of Elevated Temperature Operating Conditions in Polymer Electrolyte Water Electrolyzers

The effect of equilibration time on Al uptake in C-S-H

Extraction of Rare Earth Metals: The New Thermodynamic Considerations Toward Process Hydrometallurgy

Thermodynamics and Dynamics of Supercritical Water Pseudo‐Boiling

Exploiting end-of-life lamps fluorescent powder e-waste as a secondary resource for critical rare earth metals

The G protein coupled receptor CXCR4 designed by the QTY code becomes more hydrophilic and retains cell signaling activity

Inside Back Cover

The effect of sodium hydroxide on Al uptake by calcium silicate hydrates (C S H)

HillCity - Future city, living and working under the same roof

A novel proposition for a citrate-modified photo-Fenton process against bacterial contamination of microalgae cultures

Evaporation of Metals during the Thermal Treatment of Oxide Nanomaterials in Cellulose-Based Matrices

Metal-organic frameworks as kinetic modulators for branched selectivity in hydroformylation

Siloxane compounds in biogas from manure and mixed organic waste: Method development and speciation analysis with GC-ICP-MS

Real-Time Detection of Aerosol Metals Using Online Extractive Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry

CaP bone‐like coating for fast osseointegration of dental implants

Global uncertainty-sensitivity analysis on mechanistic kinetic models: From model assessment to theory-driven design of nanoparticles

Production of Algae for Biomaterials and Bioenergy: Closing the Nutrient Cycle and Enhancing the Light Utilisation Efficiency

Quantifying Litter Emissions into the Swiss Environment - A bottom-up approach focusing on roads

Precipitation Pathways: In Situ Liquid SAXS Studies on the Early Stage of Calcium Carbonate Formation (Part. Part. Syst. Charact. 6/2019)

Understanding the effects of material properties and operating conditions on component aging in polymer electrolyte water electrolyzers

Supercritical water anomalies in the vicinity of the Widom line

Visualization of supercritical water pseudo-boiling at Widom line crossover

Progress towards the resource revolution

Rare Earth Metals Recycling from E-Wastes: Strategy and Perspective

A dilute gold nanoparticle suspension as small-angle X-ray scattering standard for an absolute scale using an extended Guinier approximation

Gülle zu Biomethan - Eine techno-ökonomische Bewertung innovativer Kleinanlagen

Kinetics and Mechanism of Metal Nanoparticle Growth via Optical Extinction Spectroscopy and Computational Modeling: The Curious Case of Colloidal Gold

In Situ Liquid SAXS Studies on the Early Stage of Calcium Carbonate Formation

A combined hydrothermal gasification - solid oxide fuel cell system for sustainable production of algal biomass and energy

Hyphenated Analytical Techniques for Studying the Speciation and Fate of Contaminants and Nanoparticles in Waste Treatment and Bioenergy Processes

Combustion generated nanomaterials: online characterization via an ICP-MS based technique. Part II: resolving power for heterogeneous matrices

Combustion generated nanomaterials: online characterization via an ICP-MS based technique. Part I: calibration strategy with a TGA

Formation and transformation of calcium phosphate phases under biologically relevant conditions: Experiments and modelling

Fate and reuse of nitrogen-containing organics from the hydrothermal conversion of algal biomass