Pesticides, plasticizers, pollution and poison.
Ever since the industrial revolution, synthetic ‘chemicals’ have been marked with a bad image due to their traditional manufacturing being associated with toxicity and their reliance on finite fossil-based resources. As climate change accelerates and regulatory pressures intensify, the world is demanding cleaner and safer alternatives. The next generation of chemists is researching solutions to this issue, however, these solutions can only impact the world if they are translated into industrial applications.
This is where greenCHEM jumps in: greenCHEM is a joint program of the Freie Universität, Humboldt Universität and Technische Universität devoted to creating an ecosystem which unfolds exactly those innovations rooted in green chemistry. They provide laboratories, education and other services. One of their projects, ‘kickSTART’, focuses on pitching ideas. For this project, greenCHEM partnered with Wiley to invite students and young researchers to submit green chemistry-related ideas capable of shaping tomorrow’s technologies. From the pool of applicants, a group of standout teams was chosen to take part in a focused training session to develop their pitching and presentation skills, including clarifying the problem and their solution, its novelty and sustainable scalability, and their chosen call to action.
On the 20th of November, the teams presented their ideas to a panel of expert judges and also to the wider CIFamily community, a network led by greenCHEM. Each team delivered a concise, four-minute pitch showcasing their project, the topics of which ranged from photocatalytic reactors, purification and separation, mechanochemistry and waste-based electrolytes to flame-retardants and bio-based anode materials. The Jury Award went to Jaya Bharti for ‘Catalumina’, a light-powered catalytic reactor that produces hydrogen peroxide directly from water and air for the continuous cleaning of cooling water in computer centers, and the Audience Award went to three members from different universities in Berlin for ‘COFion’, a patented, PFAS-free material for purification and separation.
The winning teams will receive new funding, laboratory space from greenCHEM, a place in the CHEManager International Journal and more.
All competing teams were united by the shared mission to transform green chemistry for the benefit of the planet. The exchange of skills, raised awareness, and new resources provided via the kickSTART project will begin to shape green chemistry’s future.
