Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHTCarbon2Chem® Conference / November 03, 2022
5th Conference on Sustainable Chemical Conversion in Industry
What results have the scientists of the Carbon2Chem® joint project achieved in the past year? And how far has development progressed from research to industrial application? Answers will be provided by the 5th Conference on Sustainable Chemical Conversion in Industry on November 3, 2022, with the lecture program divided into three thematic blocks: "Markets", "Transformation and Society" and "International and National Projects".
The Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT, the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion CEC and thyssenkrupp Carbon2Chem GmbH are behind the congress. Together they present Carbon2Chem® as a key building block of national research and development for climate protection in industry. This includes the state of play in solving technical and regulatory challenges that companies have to face in order to implement the German government's climate protection targets in a timely manner.
Organizers
BASIC RESEARCH
At the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion, we find ways to efficiently convert energy into storable and usable forms. In this instance we particularly look for suitable catalysts for the chemical reactions required. Industry generally tries to cut CO2 through avoidance, and industry in Germany is already working with minimal use of carbon. However, complete avoidance is not possible. With Carbon2Chem®, we are developing a modular system for these industries from which modules for implementing the energy transition can be created.
APPLIED RESEARCH
As an institute whose motto is "production without raw materials", we fit perfectly into this project. For several years, the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety, and Energy Technology UMSICHT has been conducting research in projects that have set themselves the goal of further reducing both CO2 emissions and the extraction of fossil fuels, and instead work with "waste products" such as the top gases that inevitably arise in steel production, in order to use them for the production of chemicals such as methanol. That is why, with Carbon2Chem®, we want to recycle carbon after it has formed during steel production, so that it is not released but instead is sustainably reused on site.
INDUSTRY
Together with the scientific community and other industrial partners, thyssenkrupp is the first industrial enterprise to conduct pioneering work in this field. We are not pursuing a single solution, but rather a set of solutions that can also be used by other smelting works and industries. All technology modules should ultimately be interlinkable. Our first application on an industrial scale is in the steel sector – a very CO2-intensive industry. This way we are undertaking preparatory work in the industrial environment, so that we can eventually extend the modules to other industry sectors. Which is something that benefits us as a diversified corporation.
Circle of participants
Experts from politics, economy and science as well as all project participants.