Feature articles
The power of looking backwards
Isabelle shares how her personal journey taught her the value of looking backwards rather than forwards or sideways. She applies these insights to academia, encouraging PhD students and postdocs to acknowledge their progress and small wins.
E-boiler reduces gas consumption at Vopak Vlaardingen
Tank storage company Vopak has recently installed an e-boiler at its terminal in Vlaardingen. This could reduce gas consumption by a third. ‘The benefits lie in sustainability and CO2 reduction.’
Prioritise your next step
Career planning is often overshadowed by the demands of research, leaving many PhD students unprepared for their next step. That’s why they should start planning their next career move early, says Isabelle Kohler.
Green solvents for biogas membranes
To help make the agricultural sector more sustainable, a team from KU Leuven designed a membrane with a green solvent strategy for biogas purification.
Solid composite electrolyte outperforms on all fronts
A team from the University of Hasselt and the research institute imec presents in Advanced Science a new electrolyte that combines the properties of solid and liquid electrolytes in batteries. ‘We actually cheat a little.’
What does success mean to you?
Isabelle Kohler explores the personal nature of success and guides early-career researchers through the process of defining what success means to them.
More than pollution: secondary organic aerosols
Air pollution interferes with plant olfactory communication by accelerating the breakdown of volatile compounds. However, a recent study published in Science suggests that the effects of pollution are not as simple as they seem.
First step towards natural sunscreen
Researchers in Amsterdam have laid the first foundations for a sunscreen based on a molecule found naturally in the skin: urocanic acid. They have published extensive spectroscopic data in two papers in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics.
Ball mill removes PFAS from wastewater
Many pharmaceutical residues and PFASs accumulate in the environment, including in our wastewater. A ball mill seems to be the solution in a Dutch pilot project.
One technology for all volumes
With a smaller version of its Kytero single-use centrifuge, GEA enables customers to apply the same separation technology during each stage of the track from R&D to full-blown commercial scale.
An ode to patience
Isabelle Kohler offers valuable tips to help early-career researchers stay patient while pursuing their professional dreams.
‘We all have our own career path’
According to KNCV Gold Medal winner Caroline Paul, biocatalysis offers many opportunities, but it is not by default more sustainable than chemical synthesis. ‘You do have to look at the numbers and make a fair comparison.’
A bigger and modular CT-scanner for safer EV batteries
Electric vehicle batteries are notorious for causing uncontrollable fires. Unfortunately, current battery management systems are unable to detect problems in time. Dutch start-up INNER has a solution: a CT machine the size of a battery pack that can do just that.
Methane pyrolysis: A balancing act on multiple levels
Researchers from Utrecht, Eindhoven and Delft are teaming up with several industrial partners in a five-year multilateral ARC CBBC project to carry out optimisation at both atomic and reactor scale of methane pyrolysis.
Functional coatings are the future
If you ask ARC CBBC researchers, future coatings will be able to adapt to light, temperature or chemicals and even be self-healing.
Elexel: Accelerating electrochemical innovation
Marie Brands just went for it. Driven by her passion for sustainability, she founded Elexel, an independent electrolyzer testing and scale-up service company. Though it is still in its early stages, she dreams big.
The rise of electrosynthesis
Electrosynthesis is gaining traction as an interesting method to enable sustainable production processes. For example, by creating relevant chemical building blocks from carbohydrates.
Towards the Refinery of the Future
Defining the future of the chemical industry is a good start, but realizing these visions will prove challenging. We asked Bas de Bruin, Guido Mul and Atsushi Urakawa, all of them PIs within ARC CBBC, to share their ideas on how we can turn that envisioned future into reality.
‘It is important to know the industrial conditions’
With the end of her PhD track in sight, Sofie Ferwerda explains how she navigates the worlds of academia and industry in her research, which includes a collaboration with BASF.
Circus
You won’t see editor-in-chief Esther Thole charging down a black slope. But when it comes to mindblowing science, she can stomach steep descents and sharp curves.
