Photo: Private A permanent test facility for the OxFA process, which involves using oxygen to convert biomass to formic acid.
Photo: Private A permanent test facility for the OxFA process, which involves using oxygen to convert biomass to formic acid. The European Research Council has awarded Jakob Albert a grant of around ¤2 million: The chemical engineer based at Universität Hamburg will spend the next 5 years researching catalysts-so substances that influence the speed of a chemical reaction without being used up themselves. These catalysts are made from polyoxometalates, which are used to extract valuable carboxylic acid esters from biomass. Carboxylic acid esters are used to produce a variety of everyday products such as packaging, clothing, fruit flavorings and preservatives as well as active ingredients for pharmaceuticals. The carboxylic acid esters themselves are currently mainly obtained from fossil fuels. The aim of the BioValCat project led by Jakob Albert for which the ERC grant has now been awarded is to develop an industrially viable process to extract carboxylic acid esters from biomass. -Our vision is to produce platform chemicals from real biomass, so from waste products generated in the industry for instance,- explains Jakob Albert, Chair of the Professorship for Technical Chemistry at Universität Hamburg.
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