#green innovation

To secure the supply of carbon materials for industrial processes while meeting future climate protection goals, the circular economy must be further developed. This includes, for example, efficient separation and recycling processes, but also new cross-value chain approaches and business models to extend the useful life of products and to close carbon material cycles.
In parallel, chemical industry is aiming at broadening its feedstock base towards more sustainable raw materials, and the various players along the value chains are undertaking a wide range of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to implement a circular economy of carbon materials.

Moreover secure supply with inorganic raw materials is a strategic factor for industry and society. The needs for (critical) inorganic raw materials range from everyday applications, over industrial application, to key technologies for a sustainable future, such as e-mobility, energy production and storage as well as hydrogen economy. To enable a resilient circular economy of inorganic resources, circular management concepts and digital strategies, novel technologies for the recycling and recovery of inorganic raw materials from waste streams or other secondary sources, are needed.

Lectures covering circular economy

Industry faces major challenges in the transition to climate-neutral production. Many processes must be fundamentally changed in order to reduce CO₂ emissions to as low a level as possible. Some processes can be electrified to eliminate the need for fossil fuels. However, this is not an option for processes that rely on carbon. In the chemical industry in particular, new sources of carbon must be found to replace oil and gas. (Chemical) recycling, biomass, or CO₂ itself are available as options.

Lectures covering climate-neutral production

Biotechnology is going through an exciting phase: Recent developments in industrial biotechnology have led to significant advancements in the design and operation of bioreactors and bioprocess engineering, allowing for more efficient mass transfer and rapid optimization of bioprocesses. Downstream processing has been improving through the development of novel separation and purification techniques, while analytics and process control is advancing through the use of online monitoring and data analytics. Biotransformation and biocatalysis currently benefit from the discovery of novel enzymes, protein and metabolic engineering and efficient enzyme immobilization techniques. Moreover, research on biorefineries is aiming at the development of integrated approaches to economically feasible conversions of biomass into a range of value-added products.

Lectures covering industrial biotech

Water is a key factor of production in process industries, both as a key resource and a critical location factor. Global changes in water availability and the many regulations have prompted companies to develop strategies to improve water usage efficiency, reducing dependence on freshwater. The efficient management of industrial water provides industry with a wide range of economic and strategic advantages. New technologies, upcoming solutions, and innovations, for example ranging from water reuse to ultrapure water, are the focus of this topic.

Lectures covering industrial water

Sustainability strongly depends on new materials:
To manage transition from fossil/nuclear to renewable electricity production, energy transformation/storage via electrochemical step is vital for grid stability. Because of limited Lithium and Cobalt resources, new (flow) batteries relying on abundant, non-critical and easy-to-recycle electrode/electrolyte materials, such as e.g. Al, Mg, Na, Zn as well as carbonized biomass and lignin are needed.
Sustainable production and use of biomass can serve as a building block for the necessary transformation of the economic system. As its best when the carbon contained in the biomass remains sequestered in the long term, e.g. as a renewable basic material for durable industrial goods, as building material or for reusable/recyclable packaging.

Lectures covering new materials for sustainability

To achieve net-zero production processes the quantification of environmental impacts is indispensable.
Even though a great number of established tools, such as Life Cycle Assessment exist, several challenges prevail when quantifying the impacts of new products and processes. This topic will present established methods and best practices for environmental assessment and will discuss challenges arising in the chemical, pharma and biotech industry.

Lectures covering sustainability in production