Javier Pérez-Ramirez.
Digitisation also plays a role at NCCR “Suchcat” (“Sustainable chemical processes through catalysis”), led by ETH chemistry professor Javier Pérez-Ramírez. This NCCR tries to find new ways to make chemical products more sustainable, thus encouraging a transition to a more resource-efficient and carbon-neutral chemical industry. The “Suchcat” network encompasses 27 research groups from ETH Zurich, EPFL and five additional universities. Chemical synthesis is used to create a large number of products indispensable to our everyday lives, such as medicines, fuel, fertiliser, electronic components and much more.
In most cases, catalysts (reaction accelerators) are used. Pérez-Ramírez and his colleagues will develop and introduce new chemical processes that are not based on crude oil, but on plentiful, renewable raw materials and which meet the air, water and soil cleanliness goals of sustainable chemistry.
In particular, the researchers will create catalytic synthesis routes to convert small chemical molecules, including CO
2
, methane, water and molecular nitrogen, into base chemicals and fuels. These base chemicals represent the foundations of countless other chemicals. The development of these new processes will use modern, high-performance lab techniques, such as high through-put experiments, and digital methods, such as machine learning.
Understanding and using microbial communities
