Dr Shawn Gouws

Position: Senior Lecturer – Chemical Process Technology
Department: Chemistry
Room: 0122
Building: InnoVenton
Campus: North Campus
Phone: +27(0)41 504 3178
Email: shawn.gouws@mandela.ac.za
Personal Sites: Google Scholar / ORCID / ResearchGate

Biography

I am organized and dedicated individual that strife for excellence in my person and in my career. I completed up to my DTech (doctorate) in Chemistry in my academic studies together with one-year post-doctoral fellowship at LEOPR, Grenoble, France (2000). On my return I re-join the Nelson Mandela University (ex-PE Tech) in 2001 as research associate later to assistance till scientist in 2005. I then was involved with electrochemical research in industrial organic chemistry followed in 2008 in hydrogen research fuel cell catalysts and proton exchange membrane electrolyser catalysts research (see student and peer reviewed outputs 2008-2013). I was then task with regret to research to take on a new role as programme coordinator / lecturer Chemical Process Technology Diploma. This programme was important at the time to comply to an industry need to bridge the gap between in plant operator training and university training. The course module content needs to be developed for several new modules. Practicals aspect need to be laid out to comply with industry needs. Industry needed to be pulled into the development but also act as in an advisory capacity this program. Therefor no tangible peer review output during 2013 - 2021. However, as part of the organization I was involved in 4 large industry and SME projects.

Area of expertise

• Process industrial engineering education and process safety. Developed short learning programmes that is ECSA approved with continuous professional development (CPD) = 5

SLP = Process Safety, Basic Chemistry for operators, Basic Chemical Engineering for operators, Sampling for operators

• Research Interests:
  • Electrochemistry techniques and characterisation of catalysts and organic synthesis
  • Electrocatalyst development for proton exchange membranes and fuel cells
  • Electrophoresis of micro algae to lyse the algae for higher value products.
• Teaching Industrial process chemistry

Education

• Post-doctoral Fellowship, LEOPR, Grenoble, France, 2000
• DTech: Chemistry, 1999
• MTech: Chemistry, 1996
• Nat. Higher Diploma, 1994

Currently Teaching

Diploma Chemical Process Technology

• CPI2011 – Physical Process Chemistry II
• CPI2012 – Routes to chemicals II
• GPT2111 – Process operations and equipment II
• GPT2112 – Process Control II
• GPT2220 – Chemical Process Technology Laboratory II
• CPI3012 – Process Chemistry III
• GPT3102 – Chemical Process Technology III
• GPL3101 – Chemical Process Technology Laboratories III
• GPP3102 – Moderator In-Service training                                                       
• CCI402 – Chemical Control Industries (IV) (Adv. AChem Diploma)

Professional affiliations

• Member of the South African Chemical Institute.
• Member of the Electrochemical Society of South Africa.
• Member of the International Society of Electrochemistry.

Selected Publications

• Shawn Gouws and Melissa Gouws, Thermally regulated green living wall, SAJC, in press,May 2022
• Shawn Gouws, Teaching for chemical process technicians, Education for chemical engineers, 39, 2022, 6-11
• Shawn Gouws and Michael Muller, Valorization products from grounded-coffee beans, Scientific Reports, 11, 2021, 20445
• Ernst Ferg, Shawn Gouws, and Pongoma Basanda, Electrochemical Oxidation of Phenol using a Flow-through Micro-porous Lead Dioxide/Lead Cell, SA J of Chemistry, 2012, 65
• Rhiyaad Mohamed, Shawn Gouws & Ernst Ferg, Characterization of Pt Catalysts for PEM Fuel Cells. Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals, 555:1, 2012, 149-157
• N Gojela, and S Gouws, Characterization of base metal catalysts with platinum to reduce PGM content in a PEM electrolyser cell, Analytical Letters, 2011