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Closing event for Project House Systems Integration in Hanau

A celebration was held in Hanau-Wolfgang to officially mark completion of the three-year Project House Systems Integration - the eighth such Project House run by Creavis.

The celebrations were a little late getting started due, as Patrik Wohlhauser of the Evonik Executive Board explained, to the “lengthy, good and spirited discussions“ at the meeting of the steering committee for the Project House Systems Integration beforehand. The three-year term for this Project House ended on December 31, 2011. The projects and participating employees will now be transferred to the business units in a so-called shutdown phase to mid-year. The 100 or so guests at the February 6 event had opportunity to view the results of the Project House, with prototypes and samples from initial pilot production on display in esscom 2’s R room at the Industry Park Wolfgang.

In his address to the guests, Wohlhauser explained that Evonik was publically perceived as a progressive and technology-driven enterprise which boasts a high degree of innovative efficiency. He did also, however, pose the question, “Are we really doing enough in the way of research and development?” We could be even better, he said, especially in terms of our innovation culture and risk-taking, and we need to “work on that”. Wohlhauser called on the business units to be more open to interdisciplinary forms of collaboration as exemplified by the Project Houses, even if not all the projects initiated can turn out to actually be successful. This, he said, was the inherent nature of the system. It was ultimately the mix of figures, expertise and error culture, he added, that defined effective research and development.

“Unbelievable how quickly three years can pass,” concluded Dr. Michael Olbrich, the head of this Project House. Much has happened since the initial preparations got underway back in the summer of 2008, shortly before the onset of the global economic and financial crisis. At the time, Evonik decided to go ahead with the Project House, anyway. “It is an exceptionally positive framework setting that makes it possible to pursue innovation under the Group canopy, within the interdisciplinary organization of a Project House,” enthused Olbrich in an expression of praise directed at Executive Board Member Wohlhauser. He went on to say he believes the ability to innovate, to be creative, build networks and adapt to changing circumstances is the four-pronged prerequisite for effective work within the scope of a Project House. Olbrich began that work with a team of eight employees. In the end, 21 people were involved in the projects, with additional assistance provided by partner companies, research facilities and the business units.

The aim of the System Integration project house was to develop and inter-coordinate each product and the requisite processing technology in such a way as to ensure that the customer would be able to easily incorporate the system into its running production process. Measure of success: Seven of nine projects are currently being transferred to the Business Units; work on the other two will be on-going to mid-year in the course of a so-called Project House shutdown phase. The Project House staff has come up with solutions in areas such as polymer glazing for automobiles, concentrated solar heating, “push-of-a-button adhesion” for automobiles and industrial applications, and the manufacture of ultra-fine fibers for filtration applications. 

Test plant for CO2 separation started up

At the foot of the chimney of STEAG’s cogeneration plant in Herne, a nine-meter-high test plant has been built for evaluating new absorbents. The test plant, which is supposed to allow researchers to investigate absorbents for separating CO2 from industrial and waste gases under real conditions, is part of the Efficient CO2 Separation (EffiCO2) Project of Creavis' Science-to-Business Center Eco² .

Evonik’s business units are working together with experts from industry and science to develop new absorbents that should significantly reduce energy requirements for CO2 separation. The aim is to investigate these new substances both under real conditions and in the laboratory. Over the next few weeks, the test plant will be tested for this purpose with commercially available absorption media to obtain a reference process for the new absorbents.

For the investigations, which are to occur under real conditions, the power plant has been built in such a way that part of the flue gas from can be taken directly from the chimney and characterized by on-line analytics. The entire system has been made of glass to make it easy to view the process.

Before the CO2 is separated from the flue gas, interfering flue-gas components are removed in a scrubber column. Connected to this is the absorption column, in which the CO2 contained in the flue gas is absorbed. In a third unit, the absorption medium is regenerated and pure CO2 obtained, which is analyzed and returned to the chimney. The regenerated absorption medium is reconveyed to the absorption column and a continuous process is made possible.

A greenhouse gas, CO2 is considered to be the single-most important cause of climate change. Global CO2 emissions in 2010 amounted to more than 33 gigatons, an increase of about 30 percent over 1990. The energy sector emits the highest proportion of CO2. Because of mounting global energy requirements, the energy sector will continue in the future to account for a large share of CO2 emissions. To meet energy requirements and simultaneously reduce CO2 emissions, various CO2 separation ¬technologies are being developed and tested worldwide.