Newsportal - Ruhr-Universität Bochum

Chemists at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) have developed a new, low-cost catalyst for plastic production. It turns a biorefinery product into a starting material for the synthesis of plastics, which could represent a sustainable alternative to widespread PET. At the same time, the potential energy source hydrogen can also be formed during the reaction.

During the study, the team surrounding Dr Stefan Barwe and Prof Dr Wolfgang Schuhmann from the Bochum-based Centre for Electrochemical Sciences cooperated with the RUB Laboratory of Industrial Chemistry under the leadership of Prof Dr Martin Muhler. The researchers describe the work in the journal Angewandte Chemie from 9th July 2018.

“We could take a big step towards a sustainable chemicals industry if we did not use crude oil as the starting material, but rather biomass that is not used as a foodstuff,” says Wolfgang Schuhmann.