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UCT Prague
Technická 5
166 28 Prague 6 – Dejvice
Identification No.: 60461373
VAT: CZ60461373
Copyright: UCT Prague
Information provided by the Department of Communication.
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UCT Prague - A challenge that pays off
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The University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague consists of four faculties and several other departments
[ikona] => ukazatel [obrazek] => [ogobrazek] => [pozadi] => [obsah] =>Faculty of Chemical Technology
Faculty of Environmental Technology
Faculty of Food and Biochemical Technology
Faculty of Chemical Engineering
402 Department of Analytical Chemistry | ||
403 Department of Physical Chemistry | ||
409 Department of Chemical Engineering | ||
413 Department of Mathematics (replaced by 446) | ||
444 Department of Physics and Measurements | ||
445 Department of Computing and Control Engineering (replaced by 446) | ||
446 Department of Mathematics, Informatics and Cybernetics | ||
453 Dean’s Office of Faculty of Chemical Engineering |
University Research and Education Centres
504 University Centre UCT Prague - Unipetrol | ||
550 Department of the National Institute of Virology and Bacteriology (NIVB) | ||
554 Department for the History of the Chemical Industry and Applied Chemistry | ||
557 BIOMEDREG | ||
558 Metrology and Testing Laboratory | ||
559 Prague University Analytical Center | ||
560 BAFA | ||
570 Technoparc Kralupy UCT Prague |
The Administration of University Facilities
712 Director´s Office | ||
713 Finance Department | ||
721 Operating Department | ||
723 Sázava Dormitory | ||
724 Volha Dormitory | ||
731 Technical Department | ||
747 Conference Center | ||
748 Recreation facility Jáchymov | ||
749 Recreation facility Pec p. Sněžkou | ||
755 Volha Canteen | ||
756 Club Carbon | ||
757 Zikova Canteen | ||
758 Camping site Běstvina |
Service Departments for all UCT Prague Faculties
827 Department of Physical Education and Sport | ||
832 Department of Chemical Education and Humanities | ||
834 Department of Languages | ||
837 Department of Economics and Management |
Rector's Offices
929 General Practitioner | ||
930 Crèche Zkumavka | ||
938 Department of Internal Auditing | ||
939 Department of Supervision | ||
940 Counselling and Career Centre | ||
955 Project Centre | ||
961 Rector's Secretariat | ||
962 Registrar's Secretariat | ||
963 Department of Education | ||
965 Research and Technology Transfer Office | ||
966 Personnel Department | ||
968 Records Office | ||
969 Supplies Department | ||
971 Finance Department | ||
972 Department of Safety and Risk Prevention | ||
974 Department of International Relations | ||
976 Department of Construction and Maintenance | ||
977 Department of Building Administration | ||
979 Department of Communication | ||
980 Central Laboratories | ||
990 Computer Centre | ||
991 Department of Strategic Planning | ||
992 Hollow Glass Workrooms | ||
994 Technology Transfer Office | ||
995 Department of Operation and Technical Services | ||
996 Department of Public Order | ||
997 Centre for Information Services UCT Library UCT Press |
||
998 Vice-Rector's without Portfolio Office |
UCT Prague is a research university primarily focused on technical chemistry, chemical and biochemical technologies, material and chemical engineering, food science, and environmental science. Its cutting-edge facilities and equipment together, with an impressive scientific and research profile, make it an ideal training ground for the managerial, R&D, and public sector leaders of the future.
UCT Prague has four faculties. Its competitive edge lies in its unique “weaving together” of teaching activities with the highest-quality basic and applied research. Across UCT Prague, scientific teams are intensively involved in various national and international cooperative R&D efforts. The Project Centre provides methodological and administrative support to researchers submitting project applications and managing funded projects.
UCT Prague considers the commercialisation of applied research to be an important part of its mission. For that reason, UCT Prague’ss Research and Technology Transfer Office offers researchers support, contributing to extending valourisation of scientific outputs and pursuing the quest for new collaborative partners in applied settings. In 2015, UCT Prague opened Technopark Kralupy, a science and technology hub focused on chemistry for building construction applications, materials engineering, and related fields. The Technopark plays an essential role in UCT Prague’s technology transfer efforts and strategies.
The Research and Technology Transfer Office facilitates internal grants for researchers and students, offers opportunities to compete in prestigious research competitions, and promotes active engagement and participation in student conferences.
UCT Prague is an attractive institution for young scientists and early career researchers, and the Project Centre actively supports hosting and mentoring ECRs, e.g. as part of Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. Here, ECRs can apply for a prestigious start-up grant, the Dagmar Procházková Fund, in order to create their own UCT Prague research groups. Postdoctoral fellows at UCT Prague receive extensive international mobility support for broadening their research horizons.
UCT Prague is actively involved in global scientific efforts and is continuously expanding and deepening its collaborations with partners around the world. The basic pillars of these activities include scientific research projects, inter-university cooperation memoranda, and Erasmus+ agreements. UCT Prague additionally creates and accredits joint study programmes with universities abroad.
Paving the way for the European Commission’s HR Excellence in Research Award, UCT Prague is committed to creating collegial working conditions, supporting continuous professional development, and transparent hiring procedures. The Personnel Department co-creates facilities for employees together with the Welcome Centre, which supports employees arriving from abroad, from assisting with the visa process to answering questions about everyday life in Prague. In its determination to be an attractive and welcoming institution for all employees and students, UCT Prague has created a Gender Equality Plan, an executive action initiative.
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Feel free to contact Department of Comunication with any inquiry. The department will provide contact on University scientific staff.
Main contact person
L Mgr. Michal Janovský
b Michal.Janovsky@vscht.cz
e + 420 220 444 159
e + 420 733 690 543
- Room: A205a
Deputy contact person
D Mgr. Jan Kříž
b Jan2.Kriz@vscht.cz
e +420 220 443 799
: +420 728 831 726
- Room A318
Whole team of Department of Comunication
Press releases
- 3. 2. 2024 DETECT! (Deep Tech Creativity) successfully completed the first phase of project activities
- 13. 2. 2024 Hydrogen Academy: a new milestone in clean energy education
- 17. 1. 2024 Jitka Čejková's successful book recently released by prestigious U.S. publisher
- 30. 11. 2023 Material genetics will be pursued by the AMULET project, which succeeded in the Excellent Research Call
- 19. 9. 2023 The Prague Dejvice concept to be completed after 100 years
- 5. 9. 2023 UCT Prague co-founds Prague.bio with goal of connecting research and business sectors
- 1. 9. 2023 Faculty of Environmental Technology celebrates its 70th birthday
- 27. 8. 2023 Prague hosted world’s leaders in catalysis
- 8. 6. 2023 UCT Prague to lead on a new project for boosting innovation and entrepreneurship through deep tech
You can find older press releases in archive.
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Counselling and Career Centre UCT Prague
We offer students and graduates counselling, psychological counselling, soft skills workshops and job offers.
Alumni Club
The Alumni Club of the UCT Prague, brings together alumni and friends of the University. It strives to create a mutual communication platform between the school, alumni and current students. The club offers alumni meetings and lectures by successful alumni.
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stdClass Object ( [nazev] => Professor Bouzek receives an honorary mention from Czech Science Foundation Presidium chair [seo_title] => Professor Bouzek receives an honorary mention from Czech Science Foundation Presidium chair [seo_desc] => [autor] => Michal Janovský [autor_email] => janovski@vscht.cz [perex] =>“Allow me to congratulate you on your excellent scientific results.” A recent letter from the chair of the Czech Science Foundation (CSF) Presidium opens with these words, announcing to UCT Prague Professor Karl Bouzek that he had received an honourable mention award for the excellent outputs of the “Electrochemistry of Pt – P oxoacids interface as a key to understanding of high temperature PEM fuel cells performance” project. Only ten projects financed by CSF each year receive this award.
“We wanted to gain a deeper understanding of the complex problem of the redox processes of phosphorus oxoacids on the surface of platinum catalyst under conditions corresponding to the operating conditions of a high-temperature fuel cell with a proton-conducting polymer electrolyte membrane, and thus help its optimize its application,” said Professor Bouzek in a short interview.
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It was a bilateral project with partners from Germany: the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (which, among other things, operates the BESSY synchrotron) and the University of Bayreuth, with expertise in the field of spectroscopic methods for the characterization of electrochemical processes during operation, the so-called in operando characterisation. In the last ten years or so, the development in the field of high-temperature PEM fuel cells has been slightly delayed due to higher demands on precious metals loadings. It is due to their faster degradation during operation. But now this technology experiences a certain renaissance. This is primarily due to the working temperature, which for this type of cells typically reaches 160 to 180 degrees Celsius. This temperature, when compared to the standard low-temperature fuel cells, significantly facilitates solution of the thermal management, i.e. the removal of the heat generated by the system. Therefore, there is also a growing interest in understanding the interaction of the catalyst with the electrolyte used and harnessing this to bring high-temperature PEM technology closer to the demands on precious metals and the lifetime of a low-temperature one.
Did you face any major issues?
The project was funded for three years. Just after its first year, COVID started. Before COVID, during the first year, we had prepared measurement methodologies, experimental fuel cells, and we were preparing detailed plans for experiments. And in this moment suddenly everything closed. So, it was not until the final six months of the grant (2022 – editor’s note) that we could really start measuring. Nevertheless, we obtained results that are obviously interesting. Otherwise quite prestigious journals would not accept them for publication. In this context, I would like to highlight the fantastic commitment shown by colleagues from our group, mainly Tomáš Bystroň and Martin Prokop.
Which journals have published your results?
ACS Catalysis is probably the most prestigious one. Despite that, I’m still upset that we wasted a year and a half waiting for the infrastructure to be open for us. We could have reached completely different amount and quality of results with this grant. We’ve now submitted an application for a follow-up grant and we will see if we have a chance continue to investigate this topic at such a level.
How do you explain that you won an award even though COVID changed your plans?
I find that very interesting; the results were probably sufficient (smiles).
So, what did you discover that the editors of ACS Catalysis wanted to publish?
A high-temperature cell operates at approximately 180 degrees Celsius. So, traditional polymer electrolytes used in the low-temperature fuel cells cannot be used. It is because their stability and ionic conductivity, as their functional properties are limited to their fully hydrated stay. For this reason, a polymeric carrier saturated with phosphoric acid is currently used as an electrolyte. However, in addition to the necessary ionic conductivity, it is also an environment interesting at the given temperatures in other respects. This is either because of its aggressiveness towards metals, or from the point of view of the chemistry of the central phosphorus atom, which is able to change oxidation states from – 3 to + 5. Each of its states interacts with the catalyst, most often platinum, on different way. Additionally, some of its oxoanions can also change the configuration of the molecule with temperature, which then has also different interaction. Some potential interactions of the electrolyte with the catalyst emerged from the classical electrochemical measurements we did before; we have now identified under real operational conditions more closely what is actually happening on the cathode and anode side of this system. We also identified some of the types of interactions with the catalyst under different conditions. Thanks to our findings, it is possible to avoid to some extent stress conditions leading to faster degradation or loss of fuel cell performance.
Do you think the renaissance of high-temperature cells will continue?
Hard to say, but it is definitely perspective technology. In the case of the low-temperature fuel cells, it was already thought, everything is solved and ready for commercial application. But especially in the field of mobility situation is more complex. In case of cars of various sizes, or for example airplanes, fuel cells produce, in addition to the desired electrical energy in hundreds of kilowatts, a corresponding amount of heat energy. If this heat energy has a potential of 50, 60 degrees Celsius, then in hot weather the radiator, dissipating hundreds of kilowatts at a temperature difference of 20, 30 degrees, must be enormously large. In case of working temperature of 180 degrees Celsius or higher, a compact radiator is fully sufficient because the temperature gradients driving the heat exchange with the environment is of 100 degrees higher. A number of car producers are now trying to figure out how to get to higher temperatures to facilitate the thermal management design of the entire powertrain.
You mentioned that you would have liked to have had more project outputs. What did you miss due to the pandemic?
We primarily intended to move towards alternative catalysts reducing the demands on the platinum metals and thus making the technology more economically competitive.
A few days ago, your research group had a kick-off meeting for another European grant under the M-ERA.Net program. What will you investigate?
ERA.Net generally focuses on smaller-scale international research projects, typically involving institutions from three to four countries. For the past two years, the priorities of the program focused, among other topics, on a clean energy and hydrogen technologies. In 2022, we received funding for developing of the industrial printing techniques for high-capacity production of fuel cells with structured properties coordinated by Fraunhofer Institute ENAS (Chemnitz, Germany). We have had good results with this project so far. Pleasantly encouraged, we successfully submitted another grant application, this time on the topic of water electrolysis as a source of so-called green hydrogen. The project is coordinated by the Mittweida University of Applied Sciences (Germany), and other partners are the Fraunhofer Institute in Dresden (Germany), the Polytechnic University of Timişoara (Romania), and also LEANCAT (a Czech company). We are primarily targeting the anode as the most demanding part of the water electrolysis system. Colleagues at the Fraunhofer Institute have succeeded in developing a new approach to the production of the basic component of the anode in this process, namely the so-called porous transport layer, based on titanium. This leads to significant material savings, but at the same time, opens up new ways to more efficient use the iridium-based catalyst. And this is where our primary activity is headed, designing these kinds of production procedures that reduce the demands of technology on precious metals while maintaining their basic advantages. Colleagues in Timișoara are dealing with the issue of recycling iridium and titanium so that they can be used in new units with minimal losses after the end of a electrolyser useful life.
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