Major breakthrough: New additive process can make better — and greener — high-value chemicals

“Our research opens up fascinating possibilities for the future of pharmaceutical and agrochemical development”

30-Jul-2024 - Researchers at the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI) have achieved a significant breakthrough that could lead to better — and greener — agricultural chemicals and everyday products. Using a process that combines natural enzymes and light, the team from the ...

On the way to sustainable chemistry? Iron makes it possible

Hydroformylation of olefins using iron catalysis and light

22-Jul-2024 - The hydroformylation of olefins, also known as oxosynthesis, is one of the most important industrial processes in chemistry. Developed in 1938 by Otto Roehlen (Ruhrchemie), more than 10 million tons per year of so-called oxo products are now produced using this process. The main catalysts used ...

From Climate Gas to Raw Material

DFG Focus on Green Chemistry under Fluctuating Conditions

22-Sep-2023 - Wouldn't that be an elegant solution: to use the substance that is most damaging to the climate and threatens the future as a raw material for economic goods and everyday items? In fact, carbon dioxide (CO2), an unavoidable byproduct of civilization, is already being used in the laboratory to ...

New recycling process could find markets for ‘junk’ plastic waste

A new plastics recycling method reduces emissions by 60 percent and opens the door to the reuse of materials like plastic film, multilayer materials and colored plastics

14-Aug-2023 - Although many Americans dutifully deposit their plastic trash into the appropriate bins each week, many of those materials, including flexible films, multilayer materials and a lot of colored plastics, are not recyclable using conventional mechanical recycling methods. In the end, only about 9 ...

Direct conversion of carbon dioxide into bulk chemicals and liquid fuels

30-Aug-2022 - High-efficiency utilization of CO2 facilitates the reduction of CO2 concentration in the global atmosphere and hence the alleviation of the greenhouse effect. The chemical utilization of CO2, which refers to converting CO2 into value-added chemicals and liquid fuels, has a distinct and direct CO2 ...

Researchers develop catalyst for sustainable production of important chemical precursors

Outstanding selectivity is coupled with an unusually high efficiency

04-Apr-2022 - The alpha-olefins, consisting of carbon and hydrogen, are the most important precursors in the chemical industry. Researchers at the University of Bayreuth present a discovery in the journal “Science” that opens up previously unimagined prospects for the design and the selective as well as ...

How sugar-loving microbes could help power future cars

Genetically engineered E. coli eat glucose, then help turn it into molecules found in gasoline

24-Nov-2021 - It sounds like modern-day alchemy: Transforming sugar into hydrocarbons found in gasoline. But that’s exactly what scientists have done. In a study in Nature Chemistry, researchers report harnessing the wonders of biology and chemistry to turn glucose (a type of sugar) into olefins (a type of ...

Fine-tuned hydrocarbon separation at low energy cost

Metal organic framework membranes that selectively separate hydrocarbons set the stage for more sustainable petrochemical processes

24-Sep-2021 - An electrochemical approach developed at KAUST produces molecular-sieving membranes that could enable a cheap energy-efficient separation of light hydrocarbons, such as olefins and paraffins. This separation, critical for the petrochemical industry, usually relies on extremely energy-intensive ...

Neutrons optimize high efficiency catalyst for greener approach to biofuel synthesis

18-Dec-2019 - Researchers led by the University of Manchester have designed a catalyst that converts biomass into fuel sources with remarkably high efficiency and offers new possibilities for manufacturing advanced renewable materials. Neutron scattering experiments at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge ...

Greener molecular intermediates may aid drug design

07-Jul-2017 - Scientists at Rice University have simplified their approach to synthesize a highly versatile family of precursors en route to biologically active compounds. Their method should make drug design and development cheaper and more environmentally friendly. Synthetic chemist László Kürti and ...