The Center for Resource-Efficient Chemistry and Raw Material Conversion at TU Kaiserslautern conducts research into the sustainable use of raw materials from renewable sources. The aim is to make sustainable resources usable for chemical processes and to use as many of the components of these raw materials as possible in such a way that their basic chemical structures can be found in the products.

Specifically, the focus is on the following lines of research:

• Catalysts for raw material conversion: The focus here is particularly on catalysts based on inexpensive, non-toxic metals such as iron, manganese and cobalt. They are used for functionalization but also for the synthesis of alkanes and alkenes from regenerative sources. In addition, the use of CO2 as a C1 building block is a central topic of our research. The focus of catalyst research must and will be on robust and regenerable catalysts due to the substrates we want to convert.
• Process development for raw material change: In this line, we will investigate reactor and processing concepts for processes with renewable raw materials and carbon dioxide. This also includes the experimental investigation, modeling and simulation of the complex mixtures that occur, as well as the on-line analysis of the processes.
• Material flows in raw material change: This includes, for example, the pre-treatment of renewable raw materials for use in so-called “white biotechnology” (chemical products from natural resources), as well as processes that utilize such raw materials as completely as possible (keyword: biorefinery) and not only use certain partial material flows that are particularly easy to obtain (e.g. cellulose from wood).

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