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Kris Helten is a doctoral researcher and PhD Student supervised by Professor Bradley and is a member of the Paul Wurth Chair. His research focuses on manufacturing Covalent Organic Frameworks that can be integrated into hydrogen-separating membranes.
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Kris Helten’s research focuses on producing porous materials, primarily covalent organic frameworks (COFs), and integrating them into membranes. His research aims to produce an organic material that can selectively separate hydrogen from other gases, such as nitrogen, methane, and carbon dioxide. To select suitable COF properties, he has developed a data-driven selection tool. Prior to joining the Paul Wurth Chair in January 2024, he gained experience working in the chemical industry, specialising in the production of ion exchange resins. In his role as a plant engineer, he researched, developed and managed the automation of a process for classifying the particle size of heterodispers ion exchange resins, working alongside the process engineering, production and R&D teams.
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Kris Helten would like to share his experience of seven years in the chemical industry in the areas of “Initiation to Project Work” and “Hydrogen Systems”. He has supervised several bachelor’s students in the successful completion of their bachelor’s thesis in sustainable engineering, as well as in the optimisation of the synthesis of 3D-COFs.
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From 2019 to 2023, Kris Helten worked as a plant engineer for the Business Unit Liquid Purification Technologies at LANXESS. His main responsibilities included implementing online particle measurement (the subject of his master’s thesis), managing various small projects (with budgets of less than 1 million euros) and participating in medium projects, maintaining and updating the safety concept (HAZOPs), as well as improving production facilities for the manufacture of ion exchange resins. He began his career in the chemical industry as a student worker at the same plant in Leverkusen, Germany, in 2017. From 2014 to 2019, he also worked full-time as a ski instructor in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and part-time during his undergraduate studies.
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During his PhD project, Kris Helten spent one semester at the National University of Singapore in 2024 and was also a beneficiary of the Marie Curie Staff Exchange at Queen’s University Belfast in summer 2025. He was awarded a Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering for Chemical Engineering from the University of Applied Sciences in Münster, Germany, in 2019.
Faculty of Science, Technology and Medicine
Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance
Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences
Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust
Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine
Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History
Luxembourg Centre for European Law
Luxembourg Centre for Socio-Environmental Systems