HyFINE is changing the mindset around chemistry
Put a group of scientists and industrial stakeholders together for a few days, give them a few months to write, and you end up with a research plan that truly commands respect. In HyFINE, a consortium of more than thirty partners is investigating how the production of specialty and fine chemicals can be made circular. “We need to look at chemistry differently; from linear to circular.”
Speaking are Fernanda Neira D’Angelo and Evgeny Pidko. Neira D’Angelo, associate professor in sustainable process engineering, has been appointed by TNO as HyFINE’s project leader. Pidko is professor of Inorganic Systems Engineering at TU Delft and is HyFINE’s technical manager. Fernanda: “Chemistry is not a popular industry today, but we can’t do without it. Detergents, plastics, advanced materials, medicines and other products are part of our daily lives and the chemical industry is behind them. Only, the traditional way they’re produced needs to change because of CO₂ emissions. We can make a big difference there.”
Fascinating stuff
“If I ask the question ‘what pollutes more: a refinery or making medicines?’ everyone will give the wrong answer,” Pidko adds. “A refinery’s waste amounts to between 0.07 and 0.5 kg CO₂ per kg of product; for medicines, it can be as much as 100 kg per kg. So per kilogram the CO₂ emissions are much higher, but we make it on a smaller scale. This is a major opportunity to become more sustainable, provided we start thinking circularly. Only then can we reduce environmental impact and extract value from residual streams that would otherwise be seen as waste. Some people find chemistry scary, but it isn’t. It’s incredibly interesting and it can be the solution to sustainability challenges.”
Using hydrogen
What will HyFINE investigate? “The production of specialty and fine chemicals currently depends on fossil feedstocks. In several different research lines, we are investigating how we can use waste to produce these chemicals in a circular way,” Pidko explains. “In addition to waste, we use green electricity and green hydrogen instead of fossil molecules. Hydrogen has the advantage that it consists of only two atoms (dihydrogen), hence the name ‘H₂’. Using hydrogen and electrons in converting waste into new chemicals has the advantage that it does not generate new waste.”
Hydrogen is indispensable
“Usually, the focus with hydrogen is on energy, but in this case it is a feedstock,” says Neira D’Angelo. “In the Netherlands, HyFINE is one of the seven major GroenvermogenNL projects in which the use of hydrogen is being explored in different ways. The fact that infrastructure is being developed in the Netherlands makes it very interesting. Moreover, the Netherlands is an important industrial player thanks to, among other things, large chemical clusters and ports such as the Chemelot Chemical Cluster and major seaports (Rotterdam, Amsterdam, North Sea Port and Groningen Seaports). In addition, there is a lot of technical and chemical expertise and strong collaboration between public and private actors. The chemical industry must become more sustainable. We deliberately focus on the specialty and fine chemicals sector, because it allows us to start small and then scale up.”
GroenvermogenNL
The idea for the research arose following an invitation from GroenvermogenNL. This organization invests in a number of hydrogen projects, including HyFINE. In this project, the investment amounts to €19.3 million. The participating companies and partners are investing an additional €4.8 million. At GroenvermogenNL’s request, various experts came together for five days to formulate research questions. Pidko: “The great thing is that these are also experts who normally work in isolation on research that is more often seen as a ‘scientific exercise’. By collaborating across different technical and chemical disciplines, we want to develop something that is truly scalable, economically attractive, and applicable in practice.” The companies involved within HyFINE also helped shape the program’s content.
A broad consortium
The research is carried out by a broad consortium of research organizations and companies. “The parties have the right intention and enthusiasm. I have confidence in the partners,” Neira D’Angelo emphasizes. Pidko: “What’s nice is that both large and smaller parties are involved. The large parties know what it takes to scale up; the smaller parties are willing to take more risks and have courage. Together we can achieve a lot.”
A different mindset
“The project requires a different mindset from companies, chemists and government,” Pidko argues. “Traditional chemistry is linear; we work circularly. We want young academics and engineers to start thinking, already during lab experiments, about the waste and what you do with it. That the mindset changes. Developing ‘human capital’ is therefore one of the project’s goals. Within HyFINE, participating academics get to know many facets and people within the network. That stimulates their knowledge development, and they gain insight into how startups work and other aspects of innovation.” Neira D’Angelo adds: “We know that in the Netherlands there is a need, on the one hand, for innovative engineers and academics of the future, and on the other hand for people on the shop floor who can carry out the new applications.”
Stimulating industry
“What we want to achieve at the very least is that solutions have been devised on a small scale,” she continues. “That could be a new product, a new process, or a new machine. The market can then take it further. We want to stimulate and motivate this industry and accelerate the sustainable transition. We want to take a step toward maturity and develop a new ecosystem that is attractive to investors. Moreover, we bring people along in this process. We want society to become more aware of the need to make industrial processes more sustainable and to show how it can be done more sustainably. Because when citizens and politicians have knowledge and acceptance, the likelihood of implementation is greater.”
