Robert Franke is an associate professor at the Ruhr University in Bochum, and responsible for hydroformylation research at Evonik Performance Materials GmbH in Marl. His research interests include homogeneous catalysis, process intensification, and modeling of catalytic processes.
With the variant of the SILP (Supported Ionic Liquid Phase) / SLP (Supported Liquid Phase) technique that he co-developed, homogeneous catalysts can be applied to solid materials such as silicon or aluminum oxide with the aid of high-boiling liquids and used in an integrated membrane reactor. This enables hydroformylation processes that combine the advantages of homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts and include a novel product separation.