A group of EC2/BIG-NSE and BasCat PhD students visit the BASF Catalysts Germany GmbH in Nienburg
On October 17, 2024, a group of EC²/BIG-NSE and BasCat PhD students went on an excursion to visit catalytic installations at BASF Catalysts Germany GmbH in Nienburg. Emiliano Dal Molin (WS20 batch) had connected with one of the Neuburg department employees at the Catprep 2024 conference in Vogüé, France, in May 2024, who offered to organize the plant visit for our PhD students. The Nienburg plant specializes in functionalizing straight-channeled monolithic catalysts with precious metals, such as platinum or rhodium. Emiliano found it remarkable that the plant operates with a constant rhodium mass balance due to the high cost of the metal. "Every single gram of rhodium must be accounted for and reutilized. Objects like brooms, hoses, and gloves are stored in containers and calcined to recover any residual rhodium content," he shared. The visit was particularly valuable for Emiliano, as his PhD thesis directly focuses on monolithic catalysts. He gained insights into how properties often overlooked in the laboratory can be critically important in industrial production. For the nine other EC²/BIG-NSE PhD students who joined the excursion, the visit was equally engaging, as it offered many of them their first glimpse into an industrial production site. Considering the success of this excursion, we plan to organize similar activities in the future to foster stronger connections between academia and industry.
