News 2024

Last week, students in Business Chemistry (M.Sc.) had the great opportunity to welcome Michael B. Friede (CEO of Brenntag Specialities) at our institute. Students appreciated the chance to ask questions, get insight into the world largest chemicals distribution company and learn more about potential entrance positions.

Regardless of the challenges facing the European chemical industry, our institute stays committed to connecting students with relevant industry leaders throughout their degree.

Thanks again to Brenntag, Michal Friede and his team.

On Wednesday, 20th November, we celebrated the successful graduation of our PhD student in Business Chemistry, Dr Karla Gehde, at the castle of the University of Münster. Karla has successfully completed her doctorate in Business and Economics (Dr rer pol), becoming proud alumna number 72 of our Institute Director, Professor Jens Leker.

We extend our heartfelt congratulations and wish her all the best for the future!

Last Friday, 25th October, we celebrated the graduation of three of our PhD students in Business Chemistry at our castle of the University of Münster. All three successfully completed their PhDs in Natural Sciences. It is noteworthy that our Junior Professor, Stephan von Delft, celebrated the graduation of his first PhD student from Münster, Dr. Jannis Wesselkämper, while our institute director, Professor Jens Leker, graduated Dr. Janine Heck and Dr. Florian Frieden as Alumni number 70 and 71.

We extend our heartfelt congratulations and wish them all the best for the future!

Eleven mines and 57 recycling plants fewer: economic and ecological potential for savings on material consumption for electromobility in Europe

The demand for electric vehicles which run on batteries is increasing worldwide. At the same time, resources of primary battery materials – i.e. those obtained from mining activities – are limited. Moreover, mining these resources is often damaging to the environment and involves precarious working conditions. As a result, recycling such materials to establish a circular economy is an important issue in politics, industry and academia – also against a background of becoming independent from imports of raw materials. A team with members from academia and from the automotive and battery industries, and headed by Prof. Stephan von Delft from the University of Münster, has now been looking into the question of what effects different strategies for achieving an efficient and sustainable circular economy with lithium, cobalt and nickel for electric vehicles will have on the demand for materials in Europe. They have determined the amounts of mining and recycling which will be necessary to enable a circular economy to be set up and maintained.

We were delighted to welcome Prof. Frank Tietze, Professor of Innovation Engineering at the Institute for Manufacturing of the University of Cambridge. His visit enabled a valuable exchange on research and teaching, as well as the identification of synergies for further joint projects.
We would like to thank all collaborators from the Universities of Cambridge and Münster, as well as the Fraunhofer FFB, for the productive exchange and good cooperation. We look forward to continuing our successful partnership and seeing everyone again soon.

Moritz Gutsch of the Institute for Business Chemistry received the Dr. Andreas Dombret award for his dissertation “Co-Assessment of Costs and Environmental lmpacts for Low and Negative Carbon Dioxide Technologies“. The award is given to a dissertation that combines theoretical knowledge with business practice in an outstanding way. In his work, Moritz Gutsch developed methods to assess costs, carbon footprints and other environmental impacts of lithium-ion batteries and direct air carbon capture systems. This represents a substantial contributions to the development of sustainable energy systems.

Hydrogen's pivotal role as the future's energy cornerstone is undisputed, yet its widespread adoption hinges on overcoming cost barriers. In response, our comprehensive review meticulously analyzes 89 publications, distilling insights on hydrogen production costs from 2020 to 2050.

The direct removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere using direct air carbon capture systems is a rapidly growing and partly controversial part of climate protection. The costs and environmental impact of the technology play an important role. Against this background, our scientific work brings clarity. By developing a method for simultaneously assessing costs and environmental impact, it becomes possible to comprehensively evaluate the potential of direct air capture systems and guide technological development.