Zdravko KRAVANJA

Dr. Kravanja is a Professor and Dean at the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the University of Maribor. He is a member of the Working Party for Computer Aided Process Engineering and Education at the European Federation of Chemical Engineering. He was chairman (2007-2010) of the European Committee for the Use of Computers in Chemical Engineering Education (EURECHA). He was president of the Slovenian Academic Association for Engineering and Natural Sciences (SATENA) (2010-2011). His research has focused on the development of algorithmic techniques, strategies, and computer-based tools for sustainable Process Systems Engineering. He was the lead developer of a unique mixed-integer process synthesizer shell called MipSyn, now being upgraded to MIPSYN-Global. More recently, his research has focused on the synthesis of sustainable systems, such as biofuel supply networks based on renewable resources and the development of monetary-based sustainability measures, sustainability profit, and sustainability net present value. He is (co-)author of about 160 publications in scientific journals.

TransGen (Z. Kravanja in L. Čuček, 2015): Total Site Heat Integration leads to significant savings for utilities. The TransGen program is designed to identify the most profitable retrofits. The program has been successfully applied in a EU refinery complex within the EFENIS EU FP7 demo project.

1957 Born in Maribor

1981 Undergraduate degree at University of Maribor (UM)

1981 Employed at Ruše Nitrogen Factory

1985 master’s degree on investment planning

1988 Visiting researcher at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), USA

1990 Doctorate on heat integration of chemical reactors

1991 Assistant professor

1997 Associate professor

1997 Visiting professor at CMU

2001 Full professor

2015 Dean at UM

Important Works

Z. Kravanja (2010) Challenges in sustainable integrated process synthesis and the capabilities of an MINLP process synthesizer MipSyn. Comput Chem Eng 2010, 34:1831-1848.

Z. Kravanja, L. Čuček (2015) Optimization code TransGen for the retrofit of large heat exchanger networks.

Z. Kravanja, A. Nemet (2019) Optimization code TransHEN for the synthesis of large heat exchanger networks.

Selected Awards

1999 Silver medal of 27e Salon International des Inventions, Geneve;

2015 Pannonia Award, University of Pannonia, Hungary;

2017 Zois award for excellence in science