Winners of the First Green and Sustainable Chemistry Challenge Announced

08-Apr-2016 - Germany

Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany, and information solutions provider Elsevier have announced the winners of the first Green and Sustainable Chemistry Challenge. The winning projects demonstrate the diversity and creativity of green and sustainable chemistry.

Elsevier and Leuphana launched the Green and Sustainable Chemistry Challenge in 2015 to support and enhance sustainable research in the field of chemistry. The challenge aims to promote projects that offer environmentally friendly and sustainable processes, products and resources applicable for use in developing countries. Nearly 500 submissions were rated by an international jury, and five finalists presented their projects on Monday during the Green and Sustainable Chemistry Conference in Berlin.

The winners are Yunsang Kim from the University of Georgia, USA, and Suzana Yusup from the Universiti Teknologi Petronas, Malaysia.

Yunsang Kim was awarded a prize of € 50,000. He convinced the jury with his project “Sustainable Textile Dyeing using Nanocellulosic Fibers”. Kim developed an innovative textile dyeing technology using Nanocellulosic fiber, which will greatly reduce generations of wastewater and release of toxic chemicals in textile dyeing process.

The second prize worth € 25,000 has been awarded to the project “Biopesticide for Improvement of Paddy Yield” of Suzana Yusup. Her project demonstrates how a unique combination of different plant extracts can be used to develop a water-based bio-pesticide. The team aims to assess the advantages of this synthesized bio-pesticide against the commercial bio-pesticide on paddy fields.

“In recent years, research on green chemistry has increased tremendously, yet research is still scattered and awareness of its importance is low,” says Prof. Dr. Klaus Kümmerer, Director of the Institute of Sustainable and Environmental Chemistry at Leuphana University and member of the judging panel. “This is why Leuphana and Elsevier launched this challenge and organized the conference. With our initiatives we want to bring experts and communities together in order to foster exchange and jointly develop solutions for the environmental challenges we are facing.”

“Sustainability is a topic that affects us all. Developed as well as developing countries have to rethink their industrial culture and assume responsibility for their ecological footprint”, says Philippe Terheggen PhD, Managing Director at Elsevier. “It is evident that chemistry can contribute significantly to a sustainable future. Through our publications and reports like Sustainability Science in a Global Landscape, we aim to make a positive environmental impact by sharing best practices, encourage debate and support researchers and decision makers. Next to our close partnership with Leuphana University, Elsevier will further continue this exchange with the launch of a new journal: Current Opinion in Green and Sustainable Chemistry, which will provide expert views on current advances in Green and Sustainable Chemistry in the form of short review articles.”

https://www.chemeurope.com/en/news/157557/winners-of-the-first-green-and-sustainable-chemistry-challenge-announced.html