Chemistry and biotechnology
Products of the chemical amd biochemical industries constitute the basis of many goods of our daily needs, e.g. additives for cosmetics, foodstuffs and a variety of materials. In relation to production, usage and recycling of these goods, many ecological questions arise. The comparison among materials from an ecological point of view requires a holistic approach taking into account the entire life cycle of a material or product. In the same way, effective optimisation potentials in production or application can be identified with this enhanced view.
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- Extensive knowledge about technologies and routes of production of chemical substances is needed for making statements about the environmental impact of these substances.
- The high diversity of substances and highly integrated production require large amounts of data in order to allow the evaluation of their environmental implications.
- For the comparison of different technologies and routes for a product and the assessment of ecological weak spots it is necessary to dig deep into the configuration of the process chain and to have knowledge about the unit operations it consists of.
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- In the design phase of a new product, little information about the process is available. This is especially true for modern biotechnological products. Nevertheless, the course regarding environmentally sustainable routes is set in this phase.
All these challenges are taken at the dept. Life Cycle Engineering, helping clients to identify optimization potentials of products and processes as well as to perform comparative analysis of options.
Our Expertise
- Environmental analysis of plants and products in terms of energy and material flows
- Identification of important environmental aspects, e.g. relevant emissions sources, to ensure efficient optimization of the entire life cycle of plants, products and processes
- Comparison and analysis of different production routes and technologies, accompanying development
- Analysis of different scenarios, e.g. biomass sources for biotechnological products
- Analysis and comparison of entire product systems or individual life cycle phases of chemical and biotechnological products.
