Prof. Dr. Thomas Pielhop
Prof. Dr. Thomas Pielhop
ZHAW
School of Life Sciences and Facility Management
Fachstelle Biokatalyse und Prozesstechnologie
Work at ZHAW
Position
Focus
- Biomass
- Lignocellulose
- Fine chemicals
- Process Development
- Process Scale-Up
Teaching
- Chemical Processes 1
- Process Engineering & Data 2
- Renewable Materials and Chemicals
- Biomass as a resource
- Resource Recovery and Reuse in Food Industry
- Chemisty & Energy
- Ecological Engineering
- Laboratory Course Biological and Chemical Processes
- BIOMAT Summer School
Experience
- Process Development Chemist, Laboratory Head
Givaudan SA, Geneva
02 / 2017 - 01 / 2022 - Postdoctoral Researcher and Assistant Lecturer
ETH Zurich, Institute of Process Engineering
12 / 2015 - 01 / 2017 - Research Associate and Assistant Lecturer
ETH Zurich, Institute of Process Engineering
02 / 2010 - 11 / 2015 - Master's thesis
Süd-Chemie AG, Munich
04 / 2009 - 09 / 2009
Education and Continuing education
Education
- PhD / “Hydrothermal/Steam Explosion Pretreatment with Carbocation Scavengers for Biofuels- and Chemicals Production"
ETH Zurich, Institute of Process Engineering
05 / 2010 - 11 / 2015 - Undergradutae and graduate studies in Chemical Engineering / Master's thesis: "Production of Chemicals from Renewable Resources by Reactive Rectification" (Süd-Chemie AG)
TU Munich
10 / 2004 - 09 / 2009
Continuing Education
CAS University Didactics
Zurich University of Teacher Education (PHZH)
06 / 2024
Network
Membership of networks
ORCID digital identifier
Awards
- Practice-to-Science career grant
Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)
06 / 2024 - The Royal Society (RS) International Exchange Award
The Royal Society (RS)
06 / 2024 - Time-to-Market Award for "BisaboLife"
Givaudan SA
01 / 2018
Projects
Sustainable hyaluronic acid production from lignocellulosic biomass / Project leader / ongoing
Publications
Articles in scientific journal, peer-reviewed
- Eckl, M. A. U. et al. (2026) 'Carbocation scavenger enhanced pretreatment of wood at high solids loading : effect on enzymatic conversion and fermentation', Industrial Crops and Products, 252(124467). doi: 10.1016/j.indcrop.2026.124467.
- Li, C. et al. (2026) 'Mechanistic insights into hydroxynaphthoic acid-based suppression of lignin repolymerization', RSC Sustainability, 4(5), pp. 2396–2409. doi: 10.1039/d5su00841g.
- Nikqi, B. et al. (2025) 'Carbocation scavenger enhanced pretreatment of wood for enzymatic saccharification : experimental study and review', Industrial Crops and Products, 237(122230). doi: 10.1016/j.indcrop.2025.122230.
- Seidel, C.-M. et al. (2024) 'Overcoming softwood recalcitrance by improved 2‑naphthol addition to steam explosion pretreatment', ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, 12(19), pp. 7519–7531. doi: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.4c01267.
- Pielhop, T. (2023) 'Suppression of lignin repolymerisation to enhance cellulose bioconversion and lignin valorisation – a review', Chimia, 77(6), pp. 403–416. doi: 10.2533/chimia.2023.403.
Other publications
Gächter, A. et al. (2026) BAWIU – Biologisch abbaubare Werkstoffe in der Umwelt : Forschungsprojekt über den Einfluss und Nachweis von biologisch abbaubaren Werkstoffen in der Umwelt. Wädenswil: ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften. doi: 10.21256/zhaw-35891.
Publications before appointment at the ZHAW
- The influence of the explosive decompression in steam-explosion pretreatment on the enzymatic digestibility of different biomasses C.-M. Seidel, T. Pielhop, M.H. Studer and Ph. Rudolf von Rohr Faraday Discussions (2017)
- Sustainability assessment of glucose production technologies from highly recalcitrant softwood M. Morales, T. Pielhop, P. Saliba, K. Hungerbühler, Ph. Rudolf von Rohr and S. Papadokonstantakis Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining (2017)
- Application potential of a carbocation scavenger in autohydrolysis and dilute acid pretreatment to overcome high softwood recalcitrance T. Pielhop, C. Reinhard, C. Hecht, L. Del Bene, M.H. Studer and Ph. Rudolf von Rohr Biomass and Bioenergy (2017)
- Pilot-scale steam explosion pretreatment with 2-naphthol to overcome high softwood recalcitrance T. Pielhop, J. Amgarten, M.H. Studer and Ph. Rudolf von Rohr Biotechnology for Biofuels (2017
- Autohydrolysis pretreatment of softwood - enhancement by phenolic additives and the effects of other compounds T. Pielhop, G.O. Larrazábal and Ph. Rudolf von Rohr Green Chemistry (2016)
- Steam explosion pretreatment of softwood: the effect of the explosive decompression on enzymatic digestibility T. Pielhop, J. Amgarten, M.H. Studer and Ph. Rudolf von Rohr Biotechnology for Biofuels (2016)
- Repolymerisation in spruce autohydrolysis pretreatment increases cellulase deactivation T. Pielhop, G.O. Larrazábal, M.H. Studer, S. Brethauer, C.-M. Seidel and Ph. Rudolf von Rohr Green Chemistry (2015)
- Treatment of lignocellulosic biomass with aromatic chemicals as scavengers T. Pielhop, G. O. Larrazábal and P. Rudolf von Rohr, Patent US10370501B2 (2015)
- Use of carbonium ion scavengers in the treatment of lignocellulosic biomass T. Pielhop, M.H. Studer and P. Rudolf von Rohr Patent US9611494B2 (2013)