CLEAN AND GREEN

toxic, petroleum-based chemicals with environmentally-fri- endly and sustainable products. AIT has set itself the goal of supporting the industry in the transition to green chemicals, by providing research services covering the entire process chain, from synthesis through to separation and product puri- fication.

‘GREEN PRODUCTS’

The cornerstone for establishing the new research focus on green chemicals in the Health & Environment Department is a substance called dimethyl carbonate, or DMC. This substance plays an important role as a reagent and solvent in the manu- facture of high grade plastics, pharmaceuticals and agroche-

et against the background of diminishing fos- sil re- sources and stricter environmental regulations, the chemicals industry is making every effort to replace

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CHEMICALS AND SUSTAINABILITY – A CONTRADICTION? NOT ACCORDING TO AIT WHICH HAS ESTABLISHED ‘GREEN PRODUCTS’ AS A NEW RESEARCH FIELD.

AIT has established “Green Products” as a new research field.

HIGH TECH LAB FOR GREEN CHEMISTRY

Apart from transport, industry is one of the largest originators of car- bon dioxide emissions, the primary contributor to global warming. In its new Green Chemicals research field, the Health & En- vironment Department uses this climate-threatening substance as a raw mate- rial and building block for manufacturing valuable industrial chemi- cals.

The team has access to a comprehensive la- boratory in Tulln for its research and tests. Liquid, solid and gaseous substances can be pro- cessed at a variety of temperatures, pressures and retention times in the AIT reactor facilities, to test va- rious syntheses for large-scale industrial use. By combining this with the subsequent separation steps, entire process chains from manufacture through to the finis- hed product can be developed and demonstrated at laboratory scale.