Degussa gains interest in the start-up Solvent Innovation
Entry into the forward-looking market of ionic liquids
Degussa AG of Dusseldorf, Germany, has entered the forward-looking market in ionic liquids. Its subsidiary Creavis Technologies & Innovation has gained an interest in the Cologne, Germany-based start-up Solvent Innovation, a leading supplier in the development, production and marketing of ionic liquid technology.
Ionic liquids are novel salts with melting points below ambient temperature. Like classical molten salts, they conduct electricity but differ in that they take on liquid form at room temperature. This unique combination of characteristics makes them suitable for numerous technical application fields, both in the form of solvents for chemical processes, refining and rectification and as electrolytes for electrochemical processes.
Dr. Alfred Oberholz, Degussa Management Board Member with responsibility for Research and Development, states, "The purpose of the strategic partnership that we have entered with Solvent Innovation is to obtain ionic liquids as a new product category for large scale production applications." Degussa sees the future-oriented technology as holding a great deal of potential and aims to produce and market ionic liquids as specialty chemicals, particularly for technical applications such as pigment-sensitized solar cells, high-capacity batteries, fuel cell membranes, plastics additives, and special functional coatings.
Dr. Claus Hilgers, CEO and Managing Director of Solvent Innovation, states: "We aspire in collaboration with our customer and development partners to develop economically more efficient and ecologically friendly methods of producing pharmaceuticals and chemicals, as in the desulfurization of diesel. Ionic liquids are 'green chemicals' in that they do not evaporate, are easy to recycle and can be used as an auxiliary in recycling processes."
Founded in 1999, Solvent Innovation can boast pioneering work in the ionic liquids field, and in 2002 received the German Economy Innovation Award given by the WirtschaftsWoche newspaper and the Wirtschaftsclub Rhein-Main business association. Dr. Peter Wasserscheid, a scientist at Aachen University of Technology and co-founder of Solvent Innovation, gained the DECHEMA Award made by the German Society for Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology (DECHEMA) in 2000. This particularly underscores the industrial applicability of ionic liquids.
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