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.

With the increase in the production of batteries for electric vehicles, demand is also rising for the necessary raw materials. In view of risks to the supply chain, environmental problems and precarious working conditions which are all associated with the mining and transportation of these materials, the recycling of battery materials has become an important issue in research, politics and industry. A team of researchers from academia and the automotive and battery industry, organised around the Business Chemistry Team at the University of Münster, has therefore been investigating when the demand for the three most important raw materials for batteries – lithium, cobalt and nickel – can be met entirely through recycling in Europe, the US and China; in other words, when a completely circular economy will be possible in these regions. The team’s conclusion is that China will achieve this first, followed by Europe and the US.

We would like to draw your attention to a paper recently published in the journal Applied Energy by our Institute in collaboration with the Helmholtz Institute Münster. The topic of the paper is the combined assessment of costs and environmental impacts along the value chain from material synthesis to recycling of lithium-ion batteries. We believe that this publication will be of interest to research and industry in the context of forthcoming EU legislation on the CO2 footprint and recycling rate of lithium-ion batteries.

From 8 to 12 October, a seven-member team from our institute travelled to Gothenburg, Sweden, together with Prof. Lux, to attend the 244th meeting of the Electrochemical Society (ECS). The conference brought together experts from all over the world working on various topics in electrochemistry and battery research. Many internationally renowned battery researchers shared their knowledge on the latest cutting-edge developments in electrochemistry, battery technology and energy conversion.

Four of our young scientists also had the opportunity to present their research projects to the assembled global scientific community. This was a remarkable opportunity for the researchers to receive valuable feedback from battery experts, as well as stimulating discussions.

At the IfbM of the University of Münster, several positions as Student Assistant (with Bachelor's degree) with 6 hrs/week (time allocation flexible) are available starting February 2024.

We had the pleasure to welcome the students from Northwestern University to our institute for business chemistry. It was great fun to introduce our research topics and to discuss fundamental sustainability issues together.
Looking forward to future exchanges! 

Last Wednesday evening, 24 May, we welcomed a team from the Munich head office of the global strategy consultancy Roland Berger. As part of our PhD student seminar "Entrepreneurship & Startup Management", our PhD students from the natural sciences were able to gain insights into the everyday work of a consultant and into the topics of entrepreneurship and business models in strategy consulting.

In this year's PhD seminar by Prof. Leker, the PhD students were once again able to gain impressions on what it means to found a company - provided by real founders. The core message of the attending four start-ups was clear: Since start-ups in chemistry require high investments, it is advisable to rely on one's intuition and a good relationship with one's fund manager when it comes to financing. Another thing to remember: Get out there and tell people about your idea! And last but not least, you can also build a smart business out of ideas that were originally not quite so serious.

Represented by Prof. Dr. Simon Lux and PhD student Jannis Wesselkämper, IfbM participated in this year's IBA conference in March. In honor of Nobel Laureate John B. Goodenough, the conference was held at the University of Texas at his hometown Austin. Together with the IBA Board, IBA Board Chair Prof. Dr. Martin Winter from MEET welcomed numerous prominent guests in battery research, including Nobel Laureates Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino. 

The two-week trip to Brazil by the Institute's management ended with numerous new impressions and insights into cooperation between industry and academia.
We took the opportunity to discuss research topics such as innovation and sustainability with partners from various institutions and to exchange ideas about the possibilities of knowledge transfer in the context of country-specific conditions.

We are very happy to welcome our exchange student Jie Wang from Dalian University of Technology (DUT) in Münster.

On Thursday, September 01, Mr. Oliver Tarvenkorn, patent attorney and partner of Tarvenkorn & Wickord Patentanwälte PartG mbB, visited the IfbM to introduce the field of activity of a patent attorney to a mixed audience of natural scientists (chemistry, biochemistry, business chemistry and others).

Prof. Dr. Simon Lux has taken up the professorship for Applied Electrochemical Energy Storage Technology and Business Chemistry on August 1, 2022. Together with him, Prof. Dr. Jens Leker and Junior Professor Dr. Stephan von Delft as well as the entire team of the Business Chemistry are looking forward to the upcoming time.