Many fume hoods, each containing a box with two cables and lots of tubes: There isn’t much more to see when visiting the laboratories of Patrik Stenner in Hanau. He is the head of the technology platform “Electrochemical Processes and Products” and is surrounded by plain apparatuses that, at first glance, look neither spectacular nor revolutionary. “Everything looks the same here,” a visitor once remarked, as the process engineer shared in the German podcast Geladen – der Batteriepodcast zur Energiewende (Charged — The Battery Podcast About the Energy Transition). And that observation is actually correct. “But inside, everything is different,” Stenner clarifies.
»Electrochemistry is a key technology that not only contributes to the energy transition but also drives the circular economy in our company«
Heiko Mennerich Head of NextGen Technologies at Evonik
And it’s precisely this “inside” that matters in electrochemistry. Long forgotten, it has been experiencing a renaissance in recent years. Experts expect revolutionary developments: “Electrochemistry is a key technology that not only contributes to the energy transition but also drives the circular economy in our company,” says Heiko Mennerich, Head of NextGen Technologies at Evonik.
Since 2021, the company has consolidated its electrification activities within this technology platform.
Stenner and his team of about 20 employees at Evonik sites in Hanau and Shanghai (China) are researching how to run chemistry with electricity. Accordingly, Evonik is one of 14 industrial partners working alongside seven universities and research institutions in the project “ETOS – Electrification of Technical Organic Syntheses”, funded by the Federal Ministry of Science, to advance the green transformation of the chemical industry.
A huge advantage
“Inside” – Stenner uses this term to refer to organic electrosynthesis. This process uses electric current as a reactant, enabling the production of a wide range of new compounds. “And without highly reactive reagents and waste. That’s a huge advantage,” explains the process engineer.
One example is the production of cysteine. This raw material plays a role in medical applications such as expectorants and in plant-based meat alternatives. In the conventional process, known as the Birch method, ammonia and sodium are used. In the electrochemical alternative, electrons are used to synthesize cysteine.
To discuss possibilities like these, 70 leading electrochemistry experts from the ETOS project recently gathered at Evonik’s Hanau site to exchange insights on the progress and challenges of the 22 subprojects. Among them were representatives from BASF, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Merck, as well as academic partners from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Chemical Energy Conversion.
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They share the conviction that electrochemistry holds great potential for the sustainable transformation of industry: “Thanks to electrochemistry, we can use electricity as a primary energy source. This makes us less dependent on fossil sources of energy and reduces our carbon footprint. What’s more, we will need fewer raw materials for producing chemical substances, and less waste will be generated. And electrochemistry can help recycle substances more easily. In other words, it will become easier to enter the circular economy,” explained Professor Siegfried R. Waldvogel from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion in an ELEMENTS interview.
Waldvogel and Stenner are collaborating on a project focused on electrochemical carboxylation. This process uses electricity to convert carbon dioxide (CO₂) into organic compounds, turning a waste product into a useful chemical. “This way, we can reduce the carbon footprint of our products and use fewer chemicals to become more emission-free,” Stenner explains.
In addition, his team is researching in a pilot plant in Hanau how to use electrodialysis to separate salts that occur in many chemical processes and convert them back into valuable starting materials. The scientists expect better access to key raw materials on a circular basis, as well as simpler and more efficient processes that require fewer resources.
“The overarching goal is the transformation of the chemical industry. By acting early, we can take the lead,” says Stenner. Above all, he hopes the spark will catch: “Electrification in chemistry can become a transformation engine for other industries.” And then, everything would be different—not just on the inside.
The ETOS Project
The ETOS project aims to establish an interdisciplinary innovation network that advances the transformation of organic electrochemical reactions from laboratory to pilot scale. Developing industrially applicable electrochemical processes forms the foundation for scaling and integrating them into existing production processes.
As the first major interdisciplinary technology platform, ETOS connects organic synthesis chemistry with chemical process and reaction engineering. This enables novel solutions and key technologies for sustainable, robust, and future-proof processes and products along the entire value chain.
