Start-up Mechanolution wants to revolutionize the chemical industry

In an interview, the founding team reveals what makes their collaboration successful

01-Nov-2024 - At first glance, you might think that Desislava Dobreva and Sebastian Grothaus' start-up project is primarily characterized by differences. While Bulgarian-born scientist Desislava Dobreva has a passion for chemistry, her co-founder Sebastian Grothaus has been an entrepreneur for many years. They ...

Sustainable raw materials for a green chemical industry

Launch of the BEFuel project: From exhaust gases and wastewater to e-fuels and high-quality chemicals

29-Jan-2024 - How can e-fuels and biosurfactants for industry be produced from exhaust gases and wastewater? An interdisciplinary consortium coordinated by Fraunhofer UMSICHT is addressing this question in the newly launched BEFuel project. The focus is on coupled bioelectrochemical production – i.e. the ...

Wastewater treatment plants as drivers for the energy transition

Technical add-on module can, in principle, turn any wastewater treatment plant into a CO2 sink and decentralized methane production plant

21-Sep-2023 - By implementing an innovative technology, any wastewater treatment plant would be able to produce methane from carbon dioxide in an environmentally friendly way. If some microorganisms present in wastewater treatment plants are additionally supplied with hydrogen and carbon dioxide, they produce ...

Chemical reactions completely without waste

Mechanically driven reactions run completely without solvents: this sustainable process is now to be ready for the market

09-May-2023 - If reactions for the chemical industry were to take place without solvents, an enormous amount of environmentally harmful or even toxic waste could be saved. Prof. Dr. Lars Borchardt has shown how this can be done: Together with his team, he realizes mechanically driven reactions in catalytically ...

Light and milling balls for greener chemical processes

Reactions without solvents

16-Mar-2023 - A combination of photochemistry and mechanochemistry saves 98 per cent solvent and 80 per cent energy in a number of reactions. What’s more, the process takes less time than it does in solution. Light-driven chemical reactions so far were usually conducted with large amounts of solvents that are ...

Novel synthesis process for a sustainable use of small molecules

Toxic and expensive metals become redundant

12-Jan-2023 - The reaction principle requires no expensive and toxic metals. In addition, it enables the production and subsequent transformation of a chemical reagent that was previously only known as an unstable, fleeting species. Researchers at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, have discovered a new ...

New synthetic route for biofuel production

Compared to previous methods, the team has achieved a high yield and selectivity under less aggressive reaction conditions

09-Feb-2021 - A German-Chinese research team has found a new synthetic route to produce biofuel from biomass. The chemists converted the substance 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) produced from biomass into 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF), which could be suitable as a biofuel. Compared to previous methods, they achieved ...

New energy conversion layer for biosolar cells

04-Jan-2021 - Photosynthetic proteins can convert light energy into other forms of energy. Researchers want to make this technology usable for the industrial production of fuels, for example. A research team from the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB), together with colleagues from Lisbon, has produced a ...

Making enzymes fit for industrial applications

Biobased process for ammonia production

27-Aug-2020 - Bacterial enzymes are often powerful but also very sensitive catalysts. To call up their performance, they therefore need a special environment. Researchers at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) have developed new techniques for efficiently coupling bacterial enzymes to electrodes. Together with a ...

Selective conversion of reactive lithium compounds made possible

Until now, unwanted by-products have always been produced during the reactions - The catalyst opens up new applications

14-Aug-2020 - Researchers at Ruhr-Universität Bochum have developed a new catalyst that can catalyse reactions to produce pharmaceuticals or chemicals used in agriculture. It creates carbon-carbon bonds between what are known as organolithium compounds without creating any unwanted by-products. The team led by ...