Digital edition 2/2026

Happy End

Probiotic feed additives keep poultry intestines healthy and reduce the use of antibiotics - High-tech membranes make green hydrogen more cost-effective - Chemical recycling: Innovative adsorbents for pyrolysis

Let’s go

Microbiome

Probiotics: Spore solution

Evonik’s latest probiotic feed additive not only keeps poults healthy; its use in poultry farming makes an important contribution to the fight against antibiotic resistance. How Ecobiol® Pro is produced and why it benefits people around the world

Data Mining

Life and Death

Antibiotics help save millions of lives. However, they pose a problem when added to animal feed in particular, as their mass use promotes resistance. An overview of the situation in figures

Pharma

Dangerous Resistances

The discovery of antibiotics revolutionized medicine—and at the same time sowed the seeds of a global crisis. That’s because it is increasingly the case that bacteria can no longer be combated with the available means

The membrane emerges between two rollers.

Hydrogen

A Fine Advantage

Green hydrogen is seen as a great hope for the energy sector in the future. A team from Evonik has put a pilot plant into operation in which new high-performance membranes for water electrolysis are now being produced on a large scale. These hold the key to more cost-efficient production of green hydrogen, which industry needs as a building block for decarbonization, and for energy independence as well

Hydrogen

“We need more planning security”

The market for green hydrogen is developing more slowly than expected in Germany and Europe. Dr.-Ing. Ann-Kathrin Klaas from the Institute of Energy Economics at the University of Cologne explains how government regulation and innovative technology can help ensure things pick up speed again

A dark drop drips from a pipette onto a deep purple plate.

Circularity

Cracked Plastic

More plastic is to be recycled worldwide. Pyrolysis, which is the liquefaction of plastic waste, creates new possibilities here. Evonik offers additives and technologies that improve the quality of pyrolysis oil in a manner that makes it suitable for the production of polymers

Politics

Pyrolysis and Politics

The role that pyrolysis oils from plastic waste can play in the production of new plastics in the future is not just dependent on purity and technical feasibility. The political environment is also a factor here and can provide incentives to promote chemical recycling—or not. It therefore makes sense to take a look at the EU, the United States, and China, which together account for around three quarters of global steam cracker capacity

Drohenaufnahme eines bunten Fischerdorfs.

Good to Know

Colorfully Carefree

Evonik offers coating additives with a significantly reduced content of potentially harmful substances.

Older people stand on the left side of a pool, watching people bathing in it. On the right, young people walk away joyfully.

Foresight

Like a new person

Medicine may be on the verge of a new era. In the future, instead of treating diseases in the traditional way, doctors might be able to rejuvenate their patients: first cells and organs—and later, perhaps, the entire person. Will the Fountain of Youth become a reality?

In my Element

“Tin gives organ pipes their tone"

Every organ pipe is handcrafted. That’s why organ builder Martin Hiltmann shares a particularly close bond with tin, one of the key materials in his craft.

Good to Know

Winds of change

Repairable rotor blades make wind turbines even more sustainable.

Good to Know

The check, please.

Receipts, food cans, and thermal paper can all contain unwanted chemicals. Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne are developing a safer alternative.

Good to Know

A Cleaner Bond

Green Bonding Power: Environmentally friendly adhesives are gaining ground worldwide.

Good to Know

People & Vision: Electrified Chemistry

Electrified high-temperature chemistry for a sustainable future: Sypox converts feed gases into syngas for methanol and synthetic fuel production in a compact reactor.

Good to Know

This way, please: Cation Sampling

Innovative “signposts” direct chemical reactions to hard-to-reach locations within a molecule

Good to Know

Good Question: Will Hexanitrogen Solve Our Energy Problems?

Hexanitrogen (N₆) is a neutral nitrogen allotrope, meaning a molecular form composed solely of nitrogen atoms. It consists of a linear chain of six covalently bonded nitrogen atoms, essentially two linked azide units. The compound was successfully isolated for the first time in June 2025 by a team of chemists led by Prof. Peter R. Schreiner. Schreiner is Professor of Organic Chemistry at Justus Liebig University Giessen and Director of the Institute of Organic Chemistry.