APT is part of the AUFBRUCH graduate cluster
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We are happy that we were able to celebrate the kick-off on July 2 as part of the graduate cluster AUFBRUCH together with over 120 participants from science, industry and politics.
As a conurbation and important industrial location, North Rhine-Westphalia in particular has a large selection of biogenic residual and waste streams, e.g. from the local food and paper industries, as potential source materials for new products.
At the same time, there is potential for integrating new bioeconomy value creation structures into existing industrial value chains in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, biotechnology and agriculture. Innovation area 1 implements an integrated approach to utilize and exploit the potential of the carbohydrate-rich residues available in the Rhenish mining area for the production of ethylene and propylene glycol (EG and PG).
The Crystallisation group with their group leader PD Dr.-Ing. Kerstin Wohlgemuth is developing a suspension melt crystallization process to crystallize the water from the highly hydrous converted residue streams in order to simplify product recovery through further purification processes.
The resulting water is highly pure and can be reused for the reactions. The process offers decisive ecological advantages due to low temperatures and high yields and has a low CO2 footprint.
Graduate clusters always offer a promising view of the future. We look forward to motivated young people, groundbreaking innovations and competitive start-up ideas, in short: to four exciting years of AUFBRUCH!