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elements39
Quarterly Science newsletter Issue 2|2012
IntervIew
“there’s no success without trust in a working partnership.”
PrOJeCt HOUSe SYSteMS InteGrAtIOn
Product and process go hand in hand
CAtALYSIS
Profiling simplifies scale-up in PMPC production

2 Contents
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28
36
elements39 Issue 2|2012
CoVeR PHoto
Irina Profir, doctoral candidate at LIKAT, in Evonik’s new
laboratory at LIKAT
neWs
4 Test plant for CO 2 separation started up
4 BMBF PeTrA project to simplify administration of biopharmaceuticals
5 Opening of Advanced Project House in Taiwan
6 New university partner in China
6 Evonik and LIKAT expand research cooperation in catalysis
InteRVIeW
7 “There’s no success without trust in a working partnership.”
PRoJeCt HoUse sYsteMs InteGRAtIon
10 Product and process go hand in hand
CoMMent
18 Innovations make history
neWs
21 Honorary professorship for Dr. Klaus Engel
21 Sale of the colorants business
22 Groundbreaking ceremony for new organics production facility
22 Biogas upgrading: New plant for hollow fiber membrane modules
23 Evonik invests in High-Tech Gründerfonds II
23 Groundbreaking ceremony for new H 2 O 2 plant in China
CAtALYsIs
24 New tool for characterizing catalysts:
Profiling simplifies scale-up in PMPC production
MedICAL teCHnoLoGY
28 Implants made from PEEK ensure new quality in medicine
neWs
34 Lightweight design solutions for China automotive industry
34 The first-ever electrical sports car with a weight below 1,000 kg
35 VESTAMID® HTplus in mass-produced gearshift levers
35 High-performance plastics: Certified bio-based
InnoVAtIon MAnAGeMent
36 Identifying and developing new markets
desIGnInG WItH PoLYMeRs
40 Protective measures for treasures
neWs
42 Student project presented in Marl
42 More than 400 offshore pipes with VESTAMID® NRG
43 Creavis starts with new BISON project
43 Credits

esources
In 2011, Evonik generated sales of €1.9 billion with products and applications that
were developed in the last five years—and there will be more to come. Indeed, the
Group’s R&D pipeline is amply filled with and balanced by 450 short-, medium-,
and long-term projects. Last year, the first patent applications placed Evonik among
the leaders in specialty chemistry; in 2011, we filed 300 new patents, while our
total number of patents and applications exceeded 24,000.
Our R&D activities are guided by our strategy of concentrating on high-growth
megatrends such as health, nutrition, resource efficiency, and globalization—on
forward-looking markets that create not only financial, but also social value. In other
words, we keep investing in R&D a rich store of resources for the purpose of protecting
our natural resources. And to ensure that this stockpile does not dwindle
away, we increased our R&D expenditures in 2011 to €365 million, or eight percent
more than the previous year.
This is money well spent, as is demonstrated by our Project House Systems Integration,
which is now wrapping up its activities. The employees of the project house
found solutions for plastic glazing for cars, concentrating solar thermal energy,
and for the production of thin fibers for filtration applications. As disparate as these
developments are, they all share the same goals: They advance the development of
sustainable products and processes, in keeping with our strategy, and they make
an important contribution to energy and resource efficiency. Of the nine projects
the project house worked on in its three-year run, seven have already been returned
to the participating business lines, which are now bringing them to market maturity.
These results are also striking for the fact that the project house began its activities
in early 2009 at an ill-omened time: The height of the financial and economic crisis,
when economizing was paramount. Evonik cut costs like everyone else, but not in
R&D. We launched the project house as planned.
Another example of our commitment to using our research to save resources can
be found in our Health & Nutrition Business Unit, which is currently expanding
its market activities to aquaculture. Adding our amino acids to fish feed can save
valuable fish meal that would otherwise have to be mixed with the feed as a source
of protein, and which often comes from natural stocks of wild marine animals.
At least three kilograms of captured fish are required to produce one kilogram of
edible fish. Our amino acids also allow fish and crustaceans to digest the feed better,
so that more animals receive optimal nutrition with the same amount of feed. For
this reason, Health & Nutrition has developed new products that are an optimized
methionine source for shrimp and other crustaceans—innovative products designed
to help ensure that fewer wild fish are required for aquaculture. This preserves the
stocks of wild fish, and it counteracts overfishing. These new products are perhaps
only a small but nevertheless effective step toward a future in which we will have
to feed a constantly growing world population. In my view, this future will be worth
living only if we succeed in utilizing food, as a resource, as efficiently as possible.
edItoRIAL 3
Patrik Wohlhauser
Member of the Executive Board
of Evonik Industries AG
elements39 Issue 2|2012

4 neWs
test plant for CO 2 separation started up
At the foot of the chimney of STEAG’s cogeneration plant in Herne, a ninemeter-high
test plant has been built for evaluating new absorbents. The test
plant, which is supposed to allow researchers to investigate absorbents for
separating CO 2 from industrial and waste gases under real conditions, is part
of the Efficient CO 2 Separation (EffiCO 2 ) Project of Creavis’ Science-to-
Business Center Eco².
Evonik’s business units are working together with experts from industry
and science to develop new absorbents that should significantly reduce energy
requirements for CO 2 separation. The aim is to investigate these new
substances both under real conditions and in the laboratory. Over the next
few weeks, the test plant will be tested for this purpose with commercially
available absorption media to obtain a reference process for the new absorbents.
For the investigations which are to occur under real conditions, the power
plant has been built in such a way that part of the flue gas can be taken directly
from the chimney and characterized by online analytics. The entire system
has been made of glass to make it easy to view the process.
Before the CO 2 is separated from the flue gas, interfering flue-gas components
are removed in a scrubber column. Connected to this is the absorption
column, in which the CO 2 contained in the flue gas is absorbed. In a
third unit, the absorption medium is regenerated and pure CO 2 obtained,
which is analyzed and returned to the chimney. The regenerated absorption
medium is reconveyed to the absorption column and a continuous process is
made possible. The EffiCO 2 project is funded by the German Federal Ministry
of Education and Research (BMBF).
A greenhouse gas, CO 2 is considered to be the single-most important
cause of climate change. Global CO 2 emissions in 2010 amounted to more
than 33 gigatons, an increase of about 30 percent over 1990. The energy
sector emits the highest proportion of CO 2 . Because of mounting global
energy requirements, the energy sector will continue in the future to account
for a large share of CO 2 emissions. To meet energy requirements and simultaneously
reduce CO 2 emissions, various CO 2 separation technologies are
being developed and tested worldwide.
BMBF PetrA project
to simplify
administration of
biopharmaceuticals
The goal of the interdisciplinary research project
PeTrA*, which is sponsored by the
German Federal Ministry of Education and
Research (BMBF), is to remove the need for
injections for biopharmaceuticals used for
example in cancer immunotherapy by developing
spray and tablet formulations which
include innovative biofunctional polymers.
The project is designed to simplify the administration
of biopharmaceuticals and to improve
their bioavailability. PeTrA is managed by a
consortium consisting of Evonik Indus tries
elements39 Issue 2|2012
the nine-meter-high test
plant for CO 2 separation
AG, Merck KGaA, EMC microcollections
GmbH (a hightech company for peptide and
peptidomimetics synthesis), the Helmholtz
Center for Infection Research (HZI), and the
Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engi neering
and Biotechnology (IGB).
The project, which started on July 1, 2011,
is scheduled to last for three years Ap prox -
imately half of the €6 million budget is supported
by the three industry partners. The
PeTrA consortium also includes the Friedrich
Schiller University in Jena, Saarland University,
the University of Nij megen (Neth erlands),
Bonn University Hospital, the Charité
Hospital Berlin, Kiel University, and Würzburg
Uni versity.
Biopharmaceuticals have been on the
advance for years in modern drug therapy.
They include peptides, proteins and antibodies,
nucleic acids, and blood components, that
all represent a promising basis for new active
principles and for cancer immunotherapy.
Many of these highly successful drugs im -
prove patient life quality and have enormous
technological potential for the pharmaceutical
industry.
Today, biopharmaceuticals are mostly
administered by injection. Indeed, there is no
efficient or broadly applicable system for
administering them via the mouth (oral) or
through the respiratory pathways (inhalation)
because they are not easily absorbed by the
mucous membranes of the gastrointestinal
tract and respiration system, and tend to be
degraded in the stomach before they can
have an effect on the body. The PeTrA project
aims at overcoming these obstacles by
packaging highly sensitive biopharmaceuticals
into nano- and micro-sized particles that
transport the active ingredients through the
mucous membranes and protect them from
degradation in the stomach.

“Tablets and sprays are more convenient for
patients, particularly in long-term therapies
which can require continuous drug intake
over weeks or months,” says Dr. Rosario Lizio
about the motivation of the research partners.
Lizio, the PeTrA project coordinator, is also
the head of the Discovery & Development
department of Pharma Polymers, a product
line of the Health Care Business Line of
Evonik specialized in drug delivery systems.
*PeTrA stands for “Platform for efficient epithelial
transport of pharmaceutical applications with inno -
vative particular carrier systems” (Evonik-Funding
Ref. No.: 13N11454) and is part of the BMBF grant
project “Efficient drug transport in biological systems—BioMatVital:
Biotransporters.”
Opening of Advanced Project House in taiwan
Evonik has opened its Light & Electronics
Advanced Project House (APH) in Taiwan.
The new APH is located in Industrial Technology
Research Institute (ITRI) in Hsinchu,
one of Taiwan’s leading research institutes.
“As the first project house Evonik established
outside of Germany, it is quite literally a big
step for Evonik in innovation in Greater China
and Asia,” commented Dr. Dahai Yu, member
of the Executive Board responsible for Asia,
at the opening ceremony held in ITRI. “The
opening of the Light & Electronics APH is a
new stepping stone for entering into new
markets and the globalization of R&D.”
“The market is constantly changing. With
the APH in Taiwan, we aim to generate a link
to the growing light and electronics industry
in Asia, and identify and realize new business
opportunities through joint technical developments
and close hands-on interactions with
our customers,” said Patrik Wohlhauser,
Mem ber of the Executive Board responsible
for innovation management.
Evonik evaluated the technical and market
success probability of potential project topics
such as lighting, displays, touch panels, photovoltaic,
LEDs, and functional coatings. With
its opening, several projects have been started
up with the company’s business units’ and
business lines’ commitment and support. In
addition, a New Business Develop ment function
will be built up to identify new business
opportunities in the electronics industry. The
start focuses on Taiwan, main land China, and
Korea.
“We’re really glad to see that the construction
of office and labs has been completed
at ITRI even faster than planned. For
us, ITRI is the best place to start, as it provides
good infrastructure and a condensed knowhow
platform, as well as the local network.”
said Dr. Michael Cölle, head of the APH,
neWs
during the opening ceremony. “We’ve built
up a technical team made up of local talents,
and the team will gradually increase according
to the project needs in the future. We
expect to foster customer interaction continuously
and generate new business.”
Located in one of the world’s most important
electronics markets, the APH finds a new
way for Evonik to access the market. The
APH is to give rise to a new R&D competence
center for the Group in Asia.
From left to right: Dr. Michael Cölle (Head of
the Advanced Project House Light & electronics),
Dr. Peter nagler (Chief Innovation Officer evonik),
Dr. Ming-Ji wu (Ministry of economic Affairs),
Dr. Dahai Yu (executive Board Member evonik),
Dr. Jonq-Min Liu (executive vice President ItrI),
Dr. Hans-Josef ritzert (President evonik Greater
China), Jia Ming Liu (General Director MCL, ItrI),
Dr. Gerard Berote (President evonik taiwan)
5
elements39 Issue 2|2012

6 neWs
new university partner in China
Premiere in China: Evonik has sealed its first strategic university
partnership in Asia with Shanghai Jiaotong University (SJTU). The
cooperation agreement was signed by SJTU Vice President Xu Fei
and Dr. Hans-Josef Ritzert, Regional President Greater China, with
Dr. Dahai Yu, Evonik Executive Board Member, and Prof. Zhang
Jie, SJTU President, also in attendance at the ceremony.
Speaking at the event, Dr. Dahai Yu said, “I am delighted about
this strategic cooperation with Jiaotong University. Our partnership
will strengthen research and development cooperation in the
chemicals field and beyond.” Prof. Zhang Jie likewise welcomed
the new partnership, saying, “Innovation is the key to success, both
for Evonik and for Jiaotong University. I am certain that our cooperation
will generate genuine innovative power on both sides.”
As one of Asia’s leading universities for the natural sciences
and technology, SJTU offers modern resources for research and
development. This cooperation deal provides Evonik access to
excellent research facilities, technologies, and high-tech apparatus
at the university. Awarded the title of “Evonik Professor,” three
scientists at SJTU will conduct Evonik-funded R&D projects and
hold scientific lectures for Evonik employees.
Agreement was likewise reached on close cooperation in the
area of intellectual property law. Experts from Evonik are also slotted
to hold an industrial chemicals seminar at SJTU every two
weeks. And Evonik will provide opportunities for students at SJTU
to complete a course of practical training at the company.
The Strategic Partner University Program is an important part
of the strategy pursued by Evonik’s Corporate Innovation Strategy
& Management to develop partnership agreements with leading
universities all over the world.
elements39 Issue 2|2012
evonik and LIKAt
expand research
cooperation in catalysis
Evonik and the Leibniz Institute for Catalysis (LIKAT) are
planning to expand their cooperation in the area of catalysis
research for the long term. The Institute has been
successfully working with Evonik in the field of catalysis
for more than ten years and the parties recently agreed
to extend their long-term cooperation.
For this purpose, the Advanced Intermediates Business
Unit of Evonik has set up a new laboratory in the LIKAT
facility, which will be dedicated to the development of
new catalysts and the optimization of existing production
processes. Evonik agreed to make a large investment
available for this purpose in a framework agreement.
“Our cooperation has generated a large number of
innovations and patents over the past years,” says Prof.
Dr. Stefan Buchholz, head of Innovation Management of
the Evonik Advanced Intermediates Business Unit. “We
plan to follow up on this success by bringing additional
catalysis research products to commercial maturity in the
years to come.”
Catalysis is considered one of the most significant
levers of efficient chemical production and is a key technology
of the 21st century. It helps save energy and re -
sources and reduces by-products and waste in chemical
production. The Advanced Intermediates Business Unit
uses the catalysts for the production of plasticizers in its
integrated C4 technology platform in the Marl Chemical
Park.
LIKAT, the largest European research institute in the
area of applied catalysis, is an internationally leading institute
for the research and development of homogeneous
and heterogeneous catalysts as well as catalytic processes
and technologies. The main focus of its scientific work
is on gaining new insights into basic catalysis research and
studying their application to technical concepts.

“There’s no success without trust
in a working partnership.”
Evonik and the Leibniz Institute for
Catalysis (LIKAT) in Rostock (Germany)
have been working together for over a
decade. The cooperation with the
Performance Intermediates Business Line
in particular has produced numerous patents
and new catalysts. The new lab at
LIKAT cements Evonik’s commitment to
broadening the partnership, and Prof.
Matthias Beller, in charge of LIKAT, and
Prof. Stefan Buchholz, head of Innovation
Management at Evonik’s Advanced
Intermediates Business Unit, share their
thoughts on what this entails.
which areas will you be researching
together in the new lab?
Buchholz: The main joint research do -
main at the EVA, the Evonik Advanced
Catalysis Lab@LIKAT, centers on new
catalysts for manufacturing processes at
the Performance Intermediates Business
Line. The focus is on hydroformylation,
globally the most important homogenous
catalytic reaction to use organometallic
catalysts. More than ten million metric
tons of products, mostly plasticizer alco-
with it every year. With an annual production
capacity of just over 400,000
metric tons, Evonik is one of the leading
manufacturers of isononanol (INA) and
2-propylheptanol (2PH), which are used
mainly in making two types of plasticizers:
Diisononyl phthalate (DINP) and
di(2-propyl heptyl) phtha late (DPHP).
DINP and DPHP belong to the group of
high-molecular-weight phthalates, which
distinguish themselves through their
superior application engineering profile
and toxicological safety.
Beller: We also look forward to putting
the catalysis expertise gained over so
many years to work on carbonylations
and hydroformylations. One idea is to
functionalize renewable resources into
viable products for Evonik. We believe
that renewables will become increasingly
important in coming years. While this
opens up many new opportunities, it is
also an area that presents major challenges—and
they must be met. We intend
to venture into uncharted territory, too.
It’s a high-risk proposition from a re -
search standpoint, but it may well also
InteRVIeW
Prof. Matthias Beller (left), in charge of LIKAt,
and Prof. Stefan Buchholz, head of Innovation
Management at evonik’s Advanced Intermediates
Business Unit
what are the objectives?
Buchholz: The goal for Evonik is to
continue strengthening our leadership
position, especially in hydroformylation.
New catalyst systems, for instance,
would enable us to achieve both higher
yields as well as even higher selectivities
for target molecules.
Here, the key is to keep catalyst
costs under control. Hydroformylation
catalysts are often based on rhodium,
an extremely rare precious metal that’s
several times more expensive than gold.
Ligands, mostly organic phosphines or
phosphites, stabilize the rhodium catalysts,
which in turn helps minimize precious
metal loss. In addition, they also
have a decisive impact on catalyst activity
and selectivity. And because manufacturing
ligands is often a complex and
expensive process, we have to make
sure that the ligands we jointly develop
are also economically feasible in terms
of their production cost.
Another key aspect is that ligands have
to remain stable under extreme reaction
conditions, that is, high pressure and high
hols and surfactants, are manufactured yield significant economic rewards. temperature, and deliver the end-
333
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elements39 Issue 2|2012

8 InteRVIeW
333 product in a desired grade. Plasticizer
alcohol viscosity, for instance, is a key application
engineering parameter that’s essentially
influenced through
catalyst selectivity.
What we’ve just talked about are
mid-range goals. We’re also thinking
more long-term. One such project involves
revisiting the old dogma that only
rhodium and cobalt can efficiently catalyze
the hydroformylation. Our exploratory
work at LIKAT shows that palladium
and iridium present an heretofore
untapped potential for carbonylation
reactions. Together with LIKAT and the
work group under Prof. Arno Behr at
the Technical University of Dortmund,
an additional partner in the scope of the
Proforming Project funded by the BMBF
(Federal Ministry of Education and Research),
we intend to find out what that
potential is and how to realize it.
Beller: The idea is to provide the various
Evonik business units with fundamental
innovations in homogenous and
heterogeneous catalysis. This will in
turn spark concrete bilateral projects,
which Evonik could then scale up industrially.
who’ll be doing what? Is evonik’s role
limited to providing the funding?
Beller: That’s definitely not the case
here. Funding is important and it can
accelerate research projects, but it’s no
guarantee for success. Success comes
from working together and from intensive
exchange with academic research.
Buchholz: The sheer diversity of
demands placed on the catalysts to be
developed makes abundantly clear that
only a broadly based, methodical approach
has the greater chances of success. The
compelling advantage is that Evonik
brings decades of accumulated experience
and expertise in production to the
table, while LIKAT contributes the latest
findings from basic research. These two
complementary perspectives are not
only im portant in driving current proj-
elements39 Issue 2|2012
ects towards a successful outcome,
but also create a steady source of new
research topics.
what benefits can LIKAt derive from the
partnership?
Beller: The Leibniz Institute for Catalysis
is one of the world’s largest public
research facilities in the area of applied
catalysis. Complementing the research
work at German universities and Max
Planck Institutes, LIKAT’s declared goal
is to help translate basic research findings
into industrial applications. Yet this
can only be achieved in cooperation
with partners from industry. Or put differently:
We definitely share in the success
of technical solutions arrived at
jointly in the lab.
And what’s in it for evonik?
Buchholz: The longstanding, broadly
based cooperation with LIKAT has
played a major role in systematically
securing and expanding our technological
edge in the area of hydroformylation
but also in telomerization. Besides the
concrete research findings, we also
value the dialogue with Mr. Beller, an
internationally recognized and leading
catalysis researcher, and with Prof.
Armin Börner as very inspiring—and that
greatly stimulates our internal development
work.
Here, personal exchange is key—even
with all the advanced communication
tools and methods available today, it is
still indispensable to the creative process.
That’s why we not only have project
leaders talking with each other, but
also the people in the team—the group
heads and doctoral candidates at LIKAT,
and the researchers at Evonik. This pro ximity
gives PhD candidates insights into
industrial research, and it helps them
prepare for their career. Several doc -
to ral candidates appreciated this aspect
to the extent that they signed on with
Evonik. The ability to interact with
future colleagues in a workplace set -
t ing is an invaluable advantage, too.
Besides, it is also the best way to spread
the knowledge gained as a team effort
throughout the company.
what are the cons, if any, of such a
research partnership?
Beller: Compared to, say, a project
funded by the German research community,
academic freedom does have to
operate within a more defined framework
in this type of cooperation. As a
researcher, one might view this as a constraint,
but the way I see it, the benefits
far outweigh any perceived disadvantages.
Buchholz: The costs and the benefits—
and the latter shouldn’t be construed as
short-term profit optimization—have
to be constantly weighed against each
other. Of course, the need to be as open
as possible to enable the partner to get
fully involved sometimes conflicts with
the need to respect the necessary obligations
that come with intellectual property,
and that is why it is so important
to build trust. Trust, as our experience
with LIKAT has shown, thrives especially
well in a long-term partnership.
You have been working together now for
over ten years. How has the partnership
evolved over time?
Beller: In the beginning the cooperation
between Evonik and my colleague Armin
Börner in Rostock was focused on developing
better hydroformylation catalysts
for plasticizer alcohols. We essentially
synthesized and catalytically tested new
organometallic complexes and organic
ligands for catalyst modification. This
fell short of the goal to develop industrially
viable and feasible systems, however.
That’s why we expanded the scope
to include mechanistic experiments,
detailed catalyst studies, and structural
activity tests. In 2009 our findings were
implemented into practice in Evonik’s
integrated C4 technology platform in
Marl. Something we naturally found very
gratifying.

“If you want to develop advanced
chemical manufacturing processes, you
need to know the catalysis cycle.”
Buchholz: If you want to develop
advanced chemical manufacturing processes,
you need to know the catalysis
cycle. And that requires deep methodological
expertise in many areas: In
in-situ IR and NMR spectroscopy, in
theoretical chemistry, and in ligand synthesis.
We’ve systematically grown our
competencies in these areas and today
we reap the ben efits in the new products
and processes we develop as well as in
our joint explor atory work.
Beller: The past two years have also
shown us that other chemical technologies
are potentially attractive to Evonik.
In this regard, we support our colleagues
in Marl in establishing a strong patent
basis.
Looking back, I can say that, together,
we’ve definitely met our share of challenges
over the years. And we managed
that to a large part on the basis of the
trust that exists between us as partners.
This is not something that can be taken
for granted, and at this stage I would like
to take the opportunity to thank Mr.
Buchholz and Prof. Robert Franke and
also Dr. Klaus-Diether Wiese as representatives
of Evonik.
Catalysis is a key technology for the
chemical industry. How does Germany
compare internationally? And what part
do partnerships play?
Buchholz: Germany continues to rank
at the top. Here, LIKAT’s scientific
excellence makes it stand out even more.
What distinguishes it from other catalysis
research facilities in Germany and
Europe is the strong focus on practical
implementation.
LIKAT is only following through on
a longstanding tradition. In Germany,
the chemical industry and academic research
institutes have always maintained
close ties—much more so than in many
other countries, where these two domains
are almost hostile to each other,
or where there’s no strong, innovationdriven
chemical industry to enable this
kind of partnership approach to develop
in the first place. potential. 777
InteRVIeW
the Leibniz Institute for Catalysis (LIKAt)
in rostock (Germany)
There’s no doubt that the combination
of openness to practical implementation
and academic excellence is what makes
LIKAT a preferred partner to Evonik.
Beller: High-performance catalysts are
instrumental in ensuring that chemical
reactions don’t consume more resources
than necessary, by avoiding by-products
and reducing energy requirements.
They are key to economic as well as ecological
value creation in the spirit of
decoupling technological progress from
the consumption of natural resources.
Germany has a preeminent position
in catalysis research, both in basic and
applied research. And on the academic
side, with two Max Planck Institutes—
the Max Planck Institute for Carbon Research
in Mülheim on the Ruhr and the
Fritz Haber Institute in Berlin—and the
Leibniz Institute for Catalysis in Rostock
as well as leading research groups at
various universities such as Aachen,
Berlin, Karlsruhe, and Munich, we have
a very solid platform of excellence as
well. However, it takes a working partnership
between academia and industry
to make innovations happen—to translate
research findings into viable, sustainable,
and feasible industrial processes.
Our new joint lab has the best chances of
playing a pivotal role in realizing this
9
elements39 Issue 2|2012

10 PRoJeCt HoUse sYsteMs InteGRAtIon
elements39 Issue 2|2012
Product and process
go hand in hand
Chemical products have to satisfy customers’ requirements and
the demands of the market completely. Over the past three years,
Evonik’s developers in the Project House Systems Integration
of Creavis Technologies & Innovation have paved the way for
new applications for innovative materials.
[ text Dr. Michael Olbrich ]
ReseaRch in the ivory tower—this is a beloved metaphor
for describing the gap between scientific work
and market reality. At Evonik, R&D has long forsaken
the ivory tower in favor of efficient development
work based on market requirements and megatrends.
Evonik’s project houses, an element of the strategic
research and development unit Creavis Technologies
& Innovation, are one feature of its R&D landscape.
In many of these project houses, employees from
a variety of disciplines and business units of the
Group have worked together to develop ideas and innovations
since the year 2000. Over a period of three
years, the employees combine their knowledge and
their different experiences and advance their projects
single-mindedly, outside day-to-day operations.
This allows them to build new areas of expertise and
bring products and processes to market readiness
faster.
While the first project houses focused primarily
on the development of basic technology and products,
their objective evolved over time to a greater focus
on new processes and new applications—today, they
work in closer proximity to the market. Project hous es
work on behalf of the Group to venture further into
new markets than the business units, and it is an open
question whether a project can be brought to successful
completion within three years—whether a
technically attractive solution will be found and, ultimately,
whether a marketable product is produced.
The work of the project houses, therefore, complements
the research done in the business units by
advancing medium-risk developments. But the risk
is worth it: The interdisciplinary teamwork outside
normal day-to-day business often proves to be a catalyst
for pathbreaking ideas. And for the individual
researchers, the limited duration of the project house
commitment—combined with its high visibility among
top management—is a challenge that promotes personal
development and extends employees’ horizons
beyond their normal daily work.
As the strategic research and development unit of
Evonik Industries, Creavis is commissioned to build
new and sustainable businesses for Evonik and develop
forward-looking technology platforms. The

work of the project houses focuses on very fundamental
medium-risk research topics that span multiple
business units. High-risk research topics that
represent completely new fields for Evonik are implemented
in Creavis’ Science-to-Business (S2B)
Centers.
The Project House Systems Integration began its
work at the Hanau site in early 2009. Unlike the seven
previous project houses, the 21 employees were not
tasked with developing new technologies and products
but with finding new applications for existing
(trial) products. They took a holistic approach to their
R&D: The idea was to develop the product together
with the required new processing technology so we
can hand the customer not only a product but a system
solution. These system solutions conquer the
usual market entry barriers because they can be integrated
more easily into existing production processes
or offered to the customer as an entirely redesigned
process.
Product and process development go hand in
hand: For example, a plastic may require a certain set
PRoJeCt HoUse sYsteMs InteGRAtIon
of processing parameters, but the technological
parameters at the processing end might be defined
differently. This holistic approach and the coordination
of product and process were the starting point
of development activities and an essential component
of the work in the Project House Systems Integration.
The objective was to develop economically attractive
system solutions suitable for large-scale production.
Evonik also develops additional competencies along
the value-added chain, and creates added value
through more efficient applications, resourceefficient
processes, and/or more sustainable products.
333
Partnership of product
and process
For example, the developers in the
Project House Systems Integration
researched lightweight design in cars
from a variety of angles. to this end,
they adopted a holistic r&D approach:
to open up new applications for
evonik’s (trial) products, they developed
the products, together with
the required new processing technology,
into a system solution
11
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12 PRoJeCt HoUse sYsteMs InteGRAtIon
elements39 Issue 2|2012
333
About 300 years of professional experience in a wide
variety of functions and six different disciplines: the
21 employees of the Project House Systems Integration
333
Through close proximity to application and market,
the tasks in the Project House Systems Inte -
g ration beyond the actual technology were highly
diverse: The employees evaluated processes for their
commercial value, developed business models and
plans, analyzed value-added chains in detail, prepared
conceptual studies for potential production lines, and
conducted life cycle assessments.
Work in the project house also placed specific
demands on the employees. Skills such as creativity,
network building, and adaptation to changed conditions
are important prerequisites for success—
unexpected R&D results often mean the modification
of entire project plans.
In this regard, a key efficiency and creativity
factor was the mixture of young and experienced
employees. The employees in the Project House Systems
Integration had about 300 years of combined
experience at their disposal, came from six different
educational disciplines, and had previously worked
in a variety of functions, from classical R&D, through
production, to marketing and sales. They received
additional support from 18 students, who were tackling
a range of issues in work ranging from internships
to such projects as a diploma thesis, a Bachelor’s
or Master’s thesis, or an MBA.
The success of the projects closely depends, not
least, on an intense exchange with the participating
business units, precisely because of the market proximity
of the development projects. Consequently, the
“project sponsors” from the business units played a
central role. They were the interface to the market
and the customer, since they managed the starting
products in the business unit and—if the project is
successful—are in charge of further development and,
ultimately, commercialization after the project house
is concluded. They supported the projects, analyzed
the findings, and ensured close internal communication
on the activities of the project house.
In the preparation stage of the project house,
ideas and suggestions from various business units
were collected and evaluated as part of a feasibility
study. From a total of 75 proposals, nine projects were
left that met the basic requirements for development
in the Project House Systems Integration: The product
has to be closely partnered with a specific pro-
Project house anchored
in the business units

cessing method for an innovative application. The
application itself cannot be blocked by third-party
patents and must belong to a growth market. The
competition must offer sufficient leeway, and not
least: The innovation must promise new commercial
success for the Group.
In all nine projects, the project managers each
pursued several development routes at the same time,
and investigated a number of potential fields of application.
This increased the likelihood of success,
and gave employees enough freedom to find the best
solution for each, and the best possible route to it.
Lightweight construction was a key focus of the
work in the Project House Systems Integration. In the
Automotive Glazing project, PLEXIGLAS® glazing
was developed to make vehicles lighter in weight and,
therefore, increase fuel efficiency and reduce emissions.
The requirements for car windscreens are invariably
high: High mechanical strength must be matched
by high impact strength. The panes have to be UV-
and weather-resistant, guarantee high light transmission,
and withstand temperatures of up to 80 °C without
haziness. Scratch- and abrasion-resistance also
play an important role.
The procedure was different, depending on the
type of glazing and production quantities. For smaller,
injection-molding panes installed in large piece 333
PRoJeCt HoUse sYsteMs InteGRAtIon
BAtteRY teCHnoLoGY
Sustainable mobility
PLeXIGLAS® glazing is
only about half as heavy
as conventional glazing
The speed with which electric vehicles become
operational largely depends on the performance
of the battery. In cooperation with Evonik Lita rion
GmbH, the experts in the Project House Systems
Integration have worked on one of the most
important chem ical components of the battery:
The separator, which separates the electrodes in
a battery cell. Based on Evonik’s existing
SEPARION® separator, the project house investigated
how the separator could be made thinner
and lighter, for the purpose of increasing the
amount of energy stored in the cell, and making
the battery cells smaller and more compact. The
challenge of this task is in cost-efficient mass
production.
13
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14 PRoJeCt HoUse sYsteMs InteGRAtIon
ReneWABLe eneRGIes
A systematic approach
to new energy
The expansion plans for renewable energies are extremely
ambitious in countries like Germany, Spain, and the United
States, but also in North Africa and the Arab world. Con centrating
solar power (CSP) will play an important role in these
plans. In addition to site factors, the profitability and achievement
of “grid parity” of CSP power plants depend heavily
on the cost of the power plants. Collector fields, where the
sun energy is converted to heat, are one cost driver. The
savings potential is viewed as enormous: For example, if the
parabolic or even flat collectors are no longer produced
based on glass solar mirrors but on mirrored plastic, weight
and transport costs drop, and the substructure in the solar
field is considerably easier and more cost-effective to build.
Together with the Performance Polymers Business Unit
and external partners, the team developed technical solu -
tions for the reflector and the surface finish. The first mirror
materials based on PLEXIGLAS® from Evonik are currently
undergoing approval testing. The key to their market viability
is not only durability but also the optimal reflection of the
direct sunlight and a surface finish that, for example, protects
against abrasion through sand and dust.
Collectors for solar thermal energy. If they were
made of reflective plastic instead of glass, the
substructure would be easier and more costeffective
to build. the first mirror materials
based on PLeXIGLAS® from evonik are currently
undergoing approval testing
elements39 Issue 2|2012
Prototype of roof
glazing with integrated
photovoltaic cells
New solutions for
lighter vehicles
counts, the researchers worked with the Performance
Polymers Business Unit to develop a new
impact-resistant molding compound. In 2011, several
metric tons of the new compound were produced for
the purpose of conducting injection-molding and extrusion
tests under real conditions. At the same time,
project house researchers developed various processing
technologies and tested their suitability. One of
their projects was to modify an injection-molding
technology in such a way that PLEXIGLAS® can be
combined with another plastic to form a multi-layer
design in a single step.
These developments fit seamlessly into the strategy
of the automobile industry of using primarily
lightweight, fuel-saving materials in the future to
meet guidelines on emissions and climate protection.
PLEXIGLAS® glazing saves up to 50 percent of the
weight of conventional glazing. The excellent acoustic
properties of the plastic system increases comfort,
and the shatterproof material ensures heightened
safety for passengers.
Transparent car roofs were another focus of
automotive glazing. Because they are used in signi-

ficantly smaller piece counts, they are produced in a
heat forming process. By the end of their first development
year, they had already received approval from
the German Federal Motor Transport Authority that
covers not only roof glazing but also rear and fixed
side windows. This meant that concrete projects with
customers could be started as early as the second year
of the project house. Various automobile manufacturers
are currently conducting street tests of the
first PLEXIGLAS® glazing in prototype vehicles.
In another project, the developers investigated
how a photovoltaic function might be integrated into
the roof glazing. The challenge for developers of
these power-supplying variants is that the PV cell and
polymer composite show different thermal expansion
coefficients. To ensure that the solar cells do not tear,
the researchers developed a sandwich structure, in
which the optically active cells are embedded in an
elastomer matrix that is decoupled from the exterior
PLEXIGLAS® composite layers. They have developed
three different processing techniques in all for manufacturing
such composites.
These composites, however, are flat PV semi-
finished products that still have to be formed into the
spherical shape of the roof glazing. The developers
have successfully advanced these to prototype status:
To make them operational, they produced prototypical
roofs for a standard subcompact car, including
A sandwich made of rOHACeLL® rigid foam and fiber composite top layers
is ideally suited to lightweight construction in the vehicle: this method of construction
allows a unique combination of low weight and maximum mechanical stability
PRoJeCt HoUse sYsteMs InteGRAtIon
roof glazing with integrated PV cells and transparent
roof glazing without PV integration. Evonik’s objective
is to gather practical experience with this demonstration
vehicle and, at the same time, convince
automobile manufacturers and potential customers
of the benefits of PLEXIGLAS® glazing solutions.
Transparent glazing:
The first prototypes have
already hit the streets
Evonik’s ROHACELL® rigid foam also makes a
big contribution to the lightweight construction in
the vehicle: In combination with high-strength cover
layers, it creates an extremely rigid composite that
finds potential applications in both the interior and
exterior. Concrete applications have been and are
now being tried out in numerous projects with
customers: From construction components with
rather simple requirements, such as rear seat backs,
all the way to structurally relevant components,
where ROHACELL® composites are far superior to
conservative construction methods when it comes to
energy absorption and stiffness.
333
15
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16 PRoJeCt HoUse sYsteMs InteGRAtIon
e-sPInnInG
Fine dust doesn’t stand a chance
One of the technical highlights from the Project House
Systems Integration is a new generation of polymer-based
filter materials that can be used to separate fine dust from the
waste gases of such installations as incinerators or cement
plants. In cooperation with external machine manufacturers,
this electrospinning process, as it is called, has been developed
for the highly temperature-resistant Polyimide P84 all
the way to the pilot production scale. The secret to this
material is fibers with a diameter significantly below one
micrometer: In purely mathematical terms, a purchase order
of one gram of polymer yields a fiber length of about 5,000
kilometers. This creates an extremely finely woven filter
medium.
In electrospinning, a P84 solution is set in an electrical
field under high voltage. When a certain electrical field
strength is reached, the dosing electrode forms a “fiber jet”
in the direction of the counter electrode. The solvent evaporates
and a fine fleece forms on a substrate in front of the
counter electrode. The fibers are then stuck together and
fixed on a stable support fabric. In close cooperation with
the Performance Polymers Business Unit, the developers in
the project house have created the basis for optimizing the
filtration properties of the fiber material with an eye toward
their end application. The newly acquired electrospinning
plant in the project house even allows small-scale internal
pilot production at Evonik Industries. This, in turn, will
enable researchers to evaluate the ability of other polymers
to be spun in this same way.
elements39 Issue 2|2012
A close-meshed
filter medium for
the deposition
of fine particles,
produced by electrospinning
333 But the key to commercial success for these composites
is cost-efficient mass production. This was a
special focus of the project, and there was a surprising
result: There is not just one economical process
but a number of processes that provide the best cost
efficiency, depending on the component and piece
count.
Micromagnets in new
applications
VP MAGSILICA® are highly versatile magnetic particles.
The brownish powder consists of ultrafine iron
oxides embedded in a dense silicon dioxide matrix.
Through induction, VP MAGSILICA® can be heated
to over 500 °C in a few seconds without stirring. So
the push of a button, for example, can generate local
heat, such as that required by chemical crosslinking
reactions, which can be accelerated significantly by
the heat supply. These applications were investigated
in the Bonding on Demand project.
Here, project house employees worked with
equipment manufacturers and the Inorganic Materials
Business Unit to develop new expertise in the inductive
heating of plastics and adhesives, and build a
complete application technology. With the help of
mobile induction units, potential customers conducted
pilot tests in production and addressed a number
of issues: How do we work VP MAGSILICA® into
an adhesive or a rubber? How should we construct
and design the induction apparatus? How do we
achieve the best heat input?
One of the big potential applications for VP MAG-
SILICA® is the crosslinking (vulcanization) of rubber
profiles. In this process, the powder is added in small
concentrations to the rubber formulation and heated
immediately after extrusion, thereby vulcanizing the
rubber. It became clear that the mechanical properties
of the hardened profiles are comparable to conventionally
vulcanized rubbers.
Even modern insulating glass panes can be bonded
faster and easier with the superparamagnetic powder.
Normally, the double panes of modern windows
are placed and bonded together in the edge region by
an aluminum spacer. In order to fulfill the requirements
of the upcoming thermal insulation regulation,
the aluminum will be omitted as a thermal bridge. In
cooperation with a hotmelt adhesive manufacturer,
the project house has developed a mounting process
by which the aluminum spacer can be replaced by
plastic.
Three years of work in the Project House Systems
Integration have been crowned with success: At the
end of the third year, all nine projects are still alive
and continue to look promising. Seven of the nine
projects have already been sent back to the par ti -

On the way to the market
cipating business lines, while the other two will conclude
by the middle of this year. The individual business
units now have the task of taking the technical
development results to market readiness.
As different and multi-faceted as the projects are,
they are quite similar in their strategic objectives:
They contribute to energy and resource efficiency
and advance the development of more sustainable
products and processes for Evonik and its partners
and customers. At the same time, the innovations increase
the competitiveness of the company by opening
up forward-looking markets, and by strengthening
customer loyalty through practical solutions with
high added value.
The results of these projects are important not
least because the Project House Systems Integration
was planned and prepared in the midst of the economic
crisis. But instead of slowing down work on
the projects, it proved to be a challenge and opportunity
for everyone involved. The Group’s decision
to invest in interdisciplinary and demanding research,
even in economically challenging times, turned out
to be the right strategy. Planning the project house
based on the prevailing economic conditions did
nothing to detract from its success. 777
PRoJeCt HoUse sYsteMs InteGRAtIon
with vP MAGSILICA®, adhesives and plastics can be inductively
heated to accelerate the crosslinking reaction. the Bonding
on Demand project investigated the best way to coordinate the
product and processing technology to achieve optimal results
dr. Michael olbrich is the head of the Project House
Systems Integration. After studying chemistry at the
Albert Ludwig University in Freiburg and receiving
his PhD from the Institute for Macromolecular
Chemistry there, he started his career in 1995 in the
construction chemicals industry at the Polymer
Institute Dr. R. Stenner GmbH, as an assistant to the
CEO. In 1999, he was hired to be head of molded foam
application technology at PolymerLatex GmbH & Co.
KG. In 2001, he took a job with Evonik Röhm GmbH
in the Binders and Additives Business Line. His last
job there was head of global sales for the Road Mar king
and Casting Resins business segment. Since 2008,
he has been working on the preliminary feasi bility
study for the Project House Systems Integration at
Creavis.
+49 6181 59-4976, michael.olbrich@evonik.com
17
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18 CoMMent
Innovations make history
elements39 Issue 2|2012
Innovations are, and always have been, an important cornerstone of a better future.
To ensure the livelihood of future generations, then, we must continue to put good
ideas into practice. But without social acceptance, even the best innovations will fail.
[ text Dr. Klaus Engel ]
A steady source of innovations for more than
four decades: eUDrAGIt® tablet coating, which
allows temporal and spatial control of the
release of pharmaceutical active ingredients
What comes to mind? The answer is essential to
the future of our country, because inspiration, new
ideas, and innovation are some of Germany’s most
important resources. Without innovation, we
wouldn’t be able to maintain or improve our standard
of living. Without innovation, we’ll not be able to
drive forward a sustainable, eco-friendly lifestyle and
economy. This insight is no longer truly innovative,
but it’s still not generally accepted. We must make
sure that Germany, the land of industry, the land of
research and production, doesn’t become the land
of denial and procrastination if the public refuses to
recognize the economic underpinnings of our prosperity.
In today’s Germany, the triumvirate of research, innovation,
and industry always inspires a great deal of
skepticism, or even fear, which we have to counter
with fair, fact-based arguments. If we can persuade
the public and dispel its anxiety, we can achieve a
great deal. It’s still worth our while to establish the
facts.
Innovations are, and always have been, an important
cornerstone of a better future. Indeed, they are
our lifeboat. The fledgling Federal Republic of Germany
is a good example. Sixty years ago today, in
1952, the new German constitutional state was already
three years old. The murderous world war had
ended only seven years before. In 1952, rubble and

sorrow were still part of everyday life in the divided
Germany. In an address to the German people, Federal
President Theodor Heuss complained that privation
was “firmly rooted in many, many places.” And
yet 1952 was also a year of new confidence, as the first
fruits of the reconstruction became palpable. The
German economic miracle was taking shape—through
a lot of hard work, capital assistance from abroad,
and, not least, inge nuity.
Innovation as a lifeboat to a better future? While
Heuss lamented the poverty back then, he also spoke
of confidence and “highly sophisticated inventions
that would set the German people back on course.”
An end-of-the-year review from 1952 proudly celebrates
the television: “We invented and built a number
of new machines.” Journalists can point to successful
export trade fairs as proof. Even back then,
the focus was always on innovations, new ideas that
will prevail on the market—in Germany, but also
abroad.
A core message from 1952 still holds true today;
the economic prosperity of the people of our country
is not based on the merging of simple components or
by merely imitating the achievements of others. Our
opportunities lie in forward thinking and improvements,
in brainpower, and know-how. Sixty years
later, in the Germany of the 21st century, this still applies—even
if we use different vocabulary. Ingenuity
and industriousness were the bywords of 1952. Today,
concepts such as innovative power and competitiveness
are more common.
The German economy was also gaining steam internationally
60 years ago. As early as 1952, customers
around the globe associated “Made in Germany”
on goods and products with quality. But the economic
size classes have changed: Back then, it was sovereign
nations, national economic systems or national economies
that competed with each other. In the wake of
globalization, on the other hand, we’re more likely
to talk of competition between alliances and world
regions.
Another important difference between 1952 and
2012 is the time factor: The speed of innovations has
increased. More than a half century passed from the
time the television was invented to the time it was
widely found in households across Germany. When
it came to the mobile phone, that time span was only
a little over ten years.
Over the last few decades, Germany has managed
to maintain a healthy, powerful industrial climate—
despite the crises and dramatic changes across entire
industries. The capacity for self-renewal, innovation
for our own sake, was a key factor in this regard. Today,
the chemical industry in Germany often serves
completely different markets, supplies entirely different
products than in 1952.
Evonik Industries itself reflects this change. The
Group began operating under this name in 2007, only
five years ago, thereby focusing its energies expressly
on the power to create. The new company brought
with it decades of experience from the chemical industry—and
an appreciation of the value of innovation.
Evonik’s history contains names such as Degussa,
Chemische Werke Hüls, Th. Goldschmidt, and
Röhm, just to mention a few. Even in the decades before
the name change, these companies and groups
were no strangers to innovation. Some milestones
from Evonik’s history provide good illustrations.
EUDRAGIT®, the protective coating for tablets,
came on the market in the 1950s and made it possible,
for the first time, to control the release of a medical
agent in the patient’s body.
In the colorful 1960s, plastic was king, and awareness
of environmental protection was on the rise. In
1964, the Group began producing proprietary biodegradable
detergents, the active cleansing agents 333
CoMMent
Current research topics at evonik: A binder for
corrosion protection formulations that significantly
reduces, or avoids, the use of toxic heavy metals
The core message is unchanged
19
elements39 Issue 2|2012

20 CoMMent
333 for laundry detergents. Even research into catalysts
for exhaust fumes from industry and traffic were
gaining importance—more than 20 years before the
law required cars to be fitted with catalysts.
In the 1970s, the oil crisis arrived and increased
the prices of raw materials and energy. The chemical
industry, in turn, introduced more economical and
environmentally compatible products to the market.
Among other advances, the Group made a key contribution
to reducing the environmental impact of
cars: The first production plant for MTBE—a lead substitute
important for the antiknock properties of gasoline—was
built in Marl in 1976.
The 1980s saw intense public debate over forest
dieback, disarmament, and atomic energy. Across
Germany, the Group at that time was peerless in its
activities related to monosilane-gas—a starting material
for the production of solar cells. The innovations
of this decade also included additives for solvent-free
coatings.
In the 1990s, Evonik also ensured that green ideas
gave birth to tangible products: Its silicas and organosilanes
supplied two essential components for
the production of tires that save fuel through extremely
low rolling resistance and thereby also protect
the environment. In addition, the Group transitioned
increasingly to the production of surfactants
from renewable raw materials. And about four decades
after its debut, the EUDRAGIT® tablet coating
experienced another surge in innovation—the market
launch of a new variant for patients who depend on
continuous drug delivery.
Since the dawn of the 21st century, the Group has
also focused its innovative power inwardly, adopting
new structures in research and development—one of
the most important sources for innovation. Its objective
is improved knowledge transfer and completely
market-oriented R&D.
Currently, Evonik intends to benefit above all from
the worldwide social development processes in
health, nutrition, resource efficiency, and globalization.
Some of the Group’s innovations include bricks
for home construction that stand out for their special
heat-insulating filler, and biopharmaceuticals that
come as sprays or tablets and eliminate the need for
injections. They also include binders for corrosion
protection formulations that significantly reduce or
avoid the use of toxic heavy metals.
Hydrogen peroxide—an environmentally friendly
bleaching agent that replaces chlorine bleach—is a
great example of a changing market. Another example
is PLEXIGLAS®: The plastic was introduced on
the market as early as the 1930s, and a new variant
now provides noise protection for a heavily traveled
elements39 Issue 2|2012
Dr. Klaus engel is Chairman of the
executive Board of evonik Industries AG
highway in southern China. And it demonstrates,
once again, that the global innovation superhighway
offers Germany, as an industrial nation, literally
boundless opportunities.
All these examples support my core thesis: We
cannot abandon our efforts to put good ideas into
practice, because they ensure the livelihood of future
generations. As always, the key here is dialogue: In-
Continuing the dialogue
ner cities plagued by smog, lakes and rivers covered
by foam from laundry detergents have all warned us
to make changes. There can be no doubt that legislation
and public pressure have helped bring about
the transformation. But without innovation—in other
words, without industrial practice—our progress
would have been trifling.
This is why we should discuss the pros and cons
of innovations and new projects in a spirit of fairness
and commitment—without social acceptance, even
the best innovations will fail. But at the same time,
we shouldn’t allow endless, irrelevant debate to slam
the brakes on us and make us veer off the lane of reason.
Driving on the hard shoulder is dangerous. For
an industrial nation like Germany, which depends on
innovation, it’s particularly hazardous. 777

Honorary professorship for Dr. Klaus engel
Dr. Klaus Engel (55), the Chairman of the Executive Board of Evonik
Industries AG, recently received an honorary professorship from the
School of Engineering at Duisburg-Essen University (UDE). Engel is
the President of the Chemical Industry Association (VCI) and also
chairs the Battery Technology Working Group in the National
Platform for Electromobility, which was established by the German
Chancellor.
As an industry expert, Engel keeps in touch with UDE professors
regularly, but his practical insights will now benefit the curriculum of
the school, too. He will give lectures within the scope of the “Duisburg
Dialogs” and will be involved in designing a lecture series that will
also feature discussions with other representatives of Evonik on scientific
questions from an industry perspective. The objective is to
give university students a practical perspective of applying basic scientific
concepts in industrial and business contexts.
In his new capacity, Engel is particularly concerned about reaching
out to junior scientists. “As a location for industry, Germany must
continue maintaining the highest level of quality it is known for, and
that goes for the future too, and the key to this lies in training and
advancing talented and committed young people. I look forward to
making a personal, practical contribution to this effort at Duisburg-
Essen University,” he noted during the award ceremony of the honorary
professorship in Duisburg, adding that Duisburg-Essen
University is an example of establishing functional bridges between
different sites. “Those efforts are not always successful,” Engel said.
“There are always new obstacles to overcome, both in terms of space
and content, which is essential for lasting success in science, research,
Sale of the colorants business
On April 30, 2012, Evonik Industries sold its
global colorants business to the U.S. private
investment firm Arsenal Capital Partners.
Evonik’s colorants business develops, produces,
and markets colorant systems for
decorative coatings under the trademark
COLORTREND®. Its CHROMA-CHEM® products
are used for industrial applications including
maintenance, marine, and wood coatings.
In 2011 Evonik’s colorants business generated
sales of around €130 million. With a global
setup the colorants business employs more
neWs
and teaching, as well as in the industry. It is my hope to use the honorary
professorship for building bridges, between science and industry,
theory and practice, and between people and markets. New
insights become only genuinely valuable when they are shared.”
“Close contact with the industry is particularly important for engineering
programs,” emphasized the university’s President, Prof.
Ulrich Radtke. Dr. Engel is originally from Duisburg and holds
a degree in chemistry from the University of Bochum.
At the award ceremony of the honorary professorship in
Duisburg: north rhine-westphalia Minister for economic Affairs
Harry voigtsberger, evonik CeO Dr. Klaus engel, and university
President Prof. Ulrich radtke (from left to right)
than 300 people in its production sites and
laboratories supported by sales and technical
professionals. These facilities are located in
the USA, Can ada, Brazil, Australia, China,
Malaysia, and the Netherlands.
“We are delighted with the opportunity
to acquire a leading global business in the
colorants space,” said John Televantos, Partner
at Arsenal and Co-Head of the firm’s Specialty
Industrials Group. “The business has a strong
reputation because of its people, technology,
quality, and service. It provides a great platform
to build a stronger global business in a
sector that we understand and believe it will
perform well as an independent company
benefiting from Arsenal’s resources and
expertise. We look forward to supporting
and building the business organically and
with strategic acquisitions that will further
expand its network.”
21
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22 neWs
Groundbreaking
ceremony for new organics
production facility
In March 2012, Evonik Industries broke ground to mark the official
start of the construction of a new organics production facility in
Shanghai (China), an upper-two-digit-million-euro investment. The
ceremony was attended by more than 200 guests including government
officials, regional and global contacts of Evonik’s key customers,
elements39 Issue 2|2012
strategic partners, as well as management and employees of the
company.
The detail engineering of the new organics production facility is
already completed and the plant is expected to be operational in 2013.
It will supply innovative ingredients and specialty surfactants based
on renewable raw materials for the personal care, household care, and
industrial specialties industry. It will primarily serve markets in China
and Asia Pacific, with an annual capacity of 80 kt. The new production
plant will be built on a 33,000 sqm plot of land at Evonik’s Multi-
User Site China (MUSC) in Shanghai Chemical Industry Park (SCIP).
It is conveniently located in the Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone.
Evonik’s new organics production facility is also setting environmental
standards. MUSC, a wholly-owned Evonik site, follows all
Shanghai, China and Evonik standards and laws. In addition, the site
is regularly audited and certified (ISO 9001, 14001 and OSHA 18001).
Evonik will implement state-of-the-art environmental protection
meas ures, such as sophisticated air pollution and waste treatment
controls and two-step waste water treatment.
Parallel to the construction of the new production plant, Evonik
is expanding its R&D center at its Xinzhuang site in Shanghai, with
an investment of € 23 million. The expansion includes state-of-theart
laboratories for research and development, application technology,
and technical service, with aims to develop product applications
and provide technology service for customers throughout China and
Asia Pacific.
Biogas upgrading: new plant for hollow fiber membrane modules
Evonik Industries is investing an upper-singledigit-million-euro
amount in a plant produc ing
SEPURAN® hollow fiber membrane mod ules
at its Schörfling (Austria) site. In particular, the
novel membrane technology facilitates the
energy-efficient upgrading of biogas to biomethane.
Biomethane is fed into the public
natural gas grid. The new hollow fibre spinning
plant will come on-stream within 2012
to meet the grow ing demand on the biogas
market.
“With this investment, we’re systematically
strengthening our activities in the area
of gas separation membranes, proving our
commitment to renewable energies by producing
biomethane that can be fed directly
into the grid,” said Dr. Axel Kobus, head of the
growth segment Fibers & Membranes. “In
contrast to other processes, our membrane
tech nology needs no auxiliary chemicals; nor
does it generate any solid wastes or effluents
that would need to be disposed of.” The Evonik
process is offered on the market by leading
plant engineering and construction partners,
and works cost-effectively, even in relatively
small plants. It is therefore particularly suitable
for the local energy supply of tomorrow.
The novel technology is based on membranes
produced from high-performance
Hollow fiber membrane module for
the upgrading of biogas to biomethane
polymers that in the past have been, for
example, processed into fibers and used in
hot-gas filtration. At pressures of up to 25 bar,
such membranes allow significantly improved
separation of carbon dioxide and methane
with stable selectivity, in a single process
step. The method yields methane of purity
higher than 99 percent. Neither energyintensive
recycle streams nor costly downstream
processing steps are required, which
significantly distinguishes the Evonik method
from the technologies currently available on
the market.
At present, biogas is still largely converted
to electricity at its production site, with a
maximum of 40 percent of its energy being
utilized by the conversion to power. In such
local power generation the waste heat often
remains largely unused. When fed into the
natural gas grid, however, the raw material
can be stored much more efficiently, and
more than 90 percent of its energy utilized
as power and heat.

evonik invests in High-tech Gründerfonds II
Evonik Industries has invested €2.5 million in
High-Tech Gründerfonds II, expanding the
number of industry investors to 13 corporations.
In 2011 Evonik invested €365 million
into research and development projects and
is continuing its innovation strategy with its
involvement in the fund. High-Tech Gründerfonds
II began in October 2011 with a
volume of €288.5 million in the first closing.
It is able to provide seed financing of up to
€500,000 of venture capital to innovative
technology companies and reserve another
€1.5 million per company for follow-up
rounds.
“The goal is to provide early financing for
technologies, to create lasting value in the
companies and to develop them in order to
make them commercially viable. Overall, we
have already been able to finance over 260
companies since the start of Gründerfonds I
in 2005. These start-ups have succeeded in
arranging approx. €400 million of additional
venture capital subsequent to our investments,”
says Dr. Michael Brandkamp, Mana
ging Director of High-Tech Gründerfonds.
He adds, “With the involvement of Evonik
we have not only been able to increase the
second fund to €291 million, but would also
like to significantly increase the number of
start-ups in the chemicals sector in Germany.”
“Evonik Industries fosters a distinctive
innovation culture. With our innovations we
want to maintain our technology competence
in the long-term and continue to expand it,”
explains Dr. Bernhard Mohr, Head of Cor porate
Venturing at Evonik. “Our involvement
in High-Tech Gründerfonds II is another part
of this strategy of investing in innovations and
providing assistance to promising young startups
in the chemicals sector and related disciplines.”
Following Altana and BASF, Evonik is the
third company from the chemicals sector to
invest in High-Tech Gründerfonds II. This
neWs
should send a clear signal to universities and
institutes of higher learning with a knack for
spin-offs, as well as research facilities in the
chemicals sector and related disciplines. “We
want to motivate young scientists in the field
of chemistry and related areas, which can also
be engineering sciences, to start companies
and to provide them with the necessary networks
and contacts, in addition to starting
capital,” says Michael Brandkamp, explaining
the strong presence of the chemicals industry
in the group of investors.
Proximity to corporations has many
advan tages. In addition to customer-supplier
relationships opened up between small and
large companies, the facilities or distribution
channels of the industry may possibly also be
used by start-ups. The industry benefits from
trends, innovations, and completely new, cutting-edge
business models.
High-Tech Gründerfonds invests in
young, high potential high-tech start-ups.
The seed financing provided is designed to
enable start-ups to take an idea through prototyping
and to market launch. Investors in
this public/private partnership include the
Federal Ministry of Economics and Tech nology,
the KfW Banking Group, as well as thirteen
industrial groups. High-Tech Gründerfonds
has about €563 million under management
in two funds (€272 million High-Tech
Gründerfonds I, €291 million High-Tech
Gründerfonds II).
Groundbreaking ceremony for new hydrogen peroxide plant in China
An official ceremony was held at the end of
April 2012 to mark the groundbreaking for
Evonik’s new hydrogen peroxide plant in
China. The plant is scheduled to go online,
with a planned annual production capacity of
230,000 metric tons, at the end of 2013, thus
increasing Evonik’s current overall annual capacity
of around 600,000 metric tons of
H 2 O 2 production by nearly 40 percent.
Evonik Industries recently founded Evonik
Specialty Chemicals (Jilin) Co., Ltd. (ESCJ)
to run the new production facility. Evonik will
supply its H 2 O 2 from Jilin directly to the adjacent
propylene oxide plant run by Jishen
Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. via a pipeline that
will link the two facilities. A long-term supply
agreement is in place between these companies.
Jishen will use the so-called HPPO
process to make propylene oxide from the
hydrogen peroxide. Propylene oxide is used
chiefly in the manufacturing of polyurethane
intermediates. The polyurethanes then go
into making things like upholstery for car
seats or furniture. The HPPO process was
developed by Evonik in collaboration with
ThyssenKrupp Uhde GmbH.
“Our investment in Jilin,” explains Jan Van
den Bergh, the head of Evonik’s Advanced
Intermediates Business Unit, “is an excellent
example of our strategy to develop innovative
technology to access new sales markets
for hydrogen peroxide. This move is also part
of a growth strategy that sees us making targeted
investments in Asia and that will help
us to achieve growth in that region.”
The HPPO plant in China that will use the
Evonik-Uhde technique will be the second
of its kind. The first-ever large-scale HPPO
operation anywhere in the world was jointly
established by Evonik, ThyssenKrupp Uhde,
and a Korean chemicals company (the licensee)
in Ulsan (Korea) in 2008.
Hydrogen peroxide has previously been
used mostly as a bleaching agent in the textile
and pulp industry. The new HPPO process
now makes it possible for this environmentally
friendly oxidant to also be used in the
chemical direct synthesis of propylene oxide.
The advantages of the HPPO process are that
it requires significantly less investment, that
it enables a high degree of production efficiency,
and that it is an extremely eco-friendly
process.
23
elements39 Issue 2|2012

24 CAtALYsIs
elements39 Issue 2|2012
New tool for characterizing catalysts
Profiling simplifies scale-up
in PMPC production
Owing to their complex composition, heterogeneous catalysts cannot
always be characterized entirely—something that can lead to unpleasant
surprises when the production formulation is transferred to the commercial
scale. With profiling, the experts of Evonik’s Catalysts Business
Line have developed a method that visually illustrates the influence
of the formulation on the catalytic properties. Profiling not only simplifies
scale-up but also allows the customer to sample more efficiently.
[ text Dr. Dorit Wolf ]

it Remains a challenge for catalysis experts to completely
characterize a solid catalyst. Due to the complexity
of these catalysts, they do not form a uniform
phase, but display various polymorphic solid phases
at once, which are also not defined at the molecular
level. As a result, many physical and chemical properties
are subject to broad distribution. Good examples
include the particle sizes of the carrier materials,
the size of the metal particles on the carriers, the
acidity or basicity of surface centers, or even the oxidation
conditions of the active transition metal components.
It becomes even more complicated when the conditions
on the edges of the distribution functions influence
the catalytic properties. With their content
being so infinitesimally small, it is difficult or impossible
to use physicochemical methods to identify and
quantify them.
As a catalyst producer, however, Evonik must ensure
the consistent quality and performance of its
products. In addition to the standard methods of physicochemical
characterization, such as determining
particle sizes, elementary analysis, determining pore
Figure 1
Property profile of catalysts: Profiling
illustrates the performance features “activity”
and “selectivity” in various test reactions
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
Catalyst 001 Catalyst 002 Catalyst 003
MtBe cracking [%]
0
Activity
(1)
Selectivity
(1)
Activity
(2)
Selectivity
(2)
Activity
(3)
Selectivity
(3)
Characterization using catalysis
volumes, and pore radius distribution, the company
now has a method of evaluating the catalyst: Profiling.
This tool, developed in-house, reliably indicates
the extent to which changes in the manufacturing
process influence the catalytic properties.
The method is based on testing precious metal
powder catalysts (PMPC) in different catalytic reactions
that represent the key fields of application:
Hydrogenation of CC double and CC triple bonds, of
CO and CN groups, and of aromatic nitro groups. It
also factors the hydrogenation of substrates that
simultaneously display different hydrogenizable
functional groups. The various reactions test the
catalysts’ activity and selectivity—the actual performance
features described in the property profile
of each catalyst (see Fig. 1).
The profiles differ greatly, depending on the composition
of the catalyst— the type of precious metal, the
precious metal loading, and the carrier type— 333
CAtALYsIs
Activity
(4)
Selectivity
(4)
25
elements39 Issue 2|2012

26 CAtALYsIs
Figure 2
Diagrams of the production formulae to the left, catalyst performance profiles to the right. evonik’s new method shows
which production parameters influence catalyst performance, and whether any still require fine-tuning
Compound
1
Compound
1
Compound
1
Compound
3
Heating and
stirring
reduction
Compound
3
Heating and
stirring
reduction
Compound
3
Heating and
stirring
reduction
elements39 Issue 2|2012
Compound
2
Compound
2
Compound
2
Lab
Heating and
stirring
Production
A
Heating and
stirring
Production
B
Heating and
stirring
Drying
1
Filtration
rewetting
Drying
2
Drying
1
Filtration
rewetting
Drying
2
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1
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Activity/selectivity indicator [%]
100
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0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
reaction number
Activity/selectivity indicator [%]
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Activity/selectivity indicator [%]
100
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60
50
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reaction number

Figure 3
Performance profiles of various prepared PMPC catalysts (5 % Pd/C) from evonik. these profiles allow
conclusions to be drawn regarding the preferred reactions and substrates of the particular catalyst types
%
100
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50
25
0
%
100
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50
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0
%
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0
%
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0
DEG-Catalyst 1 DEG-Catalyst 2 DEG-Catalyst 3 DEG-Catalyst 4
DEG-Catalyst 5 DEG-Catalyst 6 DEG-Catalyst 7 DEG-Catalyst 8
DEG-Catalyst 9 DEG-Catalyst 10 DEG-Catalyst 11 DEG-Catalyst 12
DEG-Catalyst 13 DEG-Catalyst 14 DEG-Catalyst 15
DEG-Catalyst 16
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Reaction Reaction Reaction Reaction
333 but also on the manufacturing formula. To put it
differently: The catalytic performance profiles are a
type of unique fingerprint for each type of catalyst.
Evonik uses profiling in the development of new
catalysts when laboratory formulas have to be transferred
to the commercial scale. With the new method,
they can analyze whether the properties lend themselves
to reproduction, and whether the catalysts produced
perform as well as the laboratory models.
Figure 2 demonstrates that profiling is well suited
to this purpose. It not only shows whether the catalyst
formula could be successfully transferred from
the laboratory to the production scale but also which
production parameters determine catalyst performance
and whether they might still require finetuning.
Profiling therefore allows selective improvement
in the robustness of the catalyst production
process, and it also assists quality assurance.
Figure 3 shows various profiles of the catalysts of
Evonik’s PMPC portfolio. All of these are five percent
Pd catalysts, with activated carbon as the carrier. The
only difference in these catalysts is the way they were
produced. In the end, they all have the same quantitative
composition. The figure shows how extremely
sensitive the performance profiles are to the parameters
of catalyst production. This makes profiling a
useful tool not only for scaling up catalysts: The
method also makes it possible to derive preferred
reactions and substrates for the various catalyst types
from the profiles.
In other words, it allows fast identification of the
types of reactions or substrates that will make a certain
catalyst in the Evonik portfolio display particularly
high activity and selectivity and, on the other
hand, which substrates will make the catalyst less
active or selective. By this method, customers can
obtain a sample optimally designed for their specific
application. 777
CAtALYsIs
More robust production processes
Pd dr. dorit Wolf has been R&D group leader in
Evonik’s Catalysts Business Line since 2004. She
studied chemistry at the University of Leipzig, where
she earned her doctorate in 1991. In 1997, Wolf qualified
as a university lecturer in chemical technology at
the Chair for Chemical Technology at Ruhr University
in Bochum. She subsequently accepted a position as
director of the Reaction Technology Working Group at
the Institute for Applied Chemistry Berlin-Adlershof.
In 2001 she moved to Evonik to direct the Hetero geneous
Catalysis Group in the Catalysis Project House.
+49 6181 59-8746, dorit.wolf@evonik.com
27
elements39 Issue 2|2012

28 MedICAL teCHnoLoGY
elements39 Issue 2|2012
Implants made from PEEK ensure
new quality in medicine
Whether it is spinal disc problems or certain diseases of the gastrointestinal
tract, dental technology or cardiac pacemakers: For many health concerns,
implants are the method of choice for restoring a patient’s quality of life.
As an implant material, polyetheretherketone has established a firm position
in a market defined not by large piece counts, but by custom-designed
individual solutions. Evonik has met this challenge with VESTAKEEP® PEEK.
[ text Marc Knebel ]
Cranial-Maxillo-Facial
Dental
Orthopedics
Cardiovascular
Spine
Fields of application
for implants made
from PeeK polymers

Patients Who suffeR from stomach or intestinal
tumors can experience constriction of the digestive
tract—a condition called stenosis, which prevents food
from passing through. In these cases, a stent—an elastic,
tube-shaped, self-expanding wire mesh that
unfolds following placement in the esophagus or the
affected section of the intestine—reopens the pathway
for food. The stent does not cure the patient’s
disease, but it does alleviate suffering and improves
the patient’s quality of life.
Traditionally produced from polyamide or polyester,
stents can now be made from Evonik’s polyetheretherketone
(PEEK) VESTAKEEP® as well. The
material boasts not only excellent biocompatibility,
which Evonik has verified in numerous tests by
external testing institutes, but also high biostability.
The latter is a direct result of the aromatic, partially
crystalline properties of the PEEK polymer, which
not only imparts outstanding resistance to corrosion,
hydrolysis, and chemicals but also renders it inert to
bodily liquids—the material retains its stability, even
under aggressive conditions.
The stents are one of the new medical applications
Evonik has opened up with VESTAKEEP®. The fact
that EPT—Evonik Polymer Technology GmbH, which
manufactures PEEK semi-finished products—is certi-
Synthesis of PeeK. the aromatic,
partially crystalline properties
of the PeeK polymer make it highly
resistant to chemicals and bodily
fluids
fied to EN ISO 13485:2003 simplifies marketing of the
material. This certification makes it easier for the
producers of medical products to qualify as suppliers,
and ensures specific medical standards of care and
traceability are met. This completes a key hurdle in
advancing new applications.
In addition to its biostability and biocompatibility
(see also elements34, p. 30 ff), the advantages of
VESTAKEEP® include its outstanding mechanical
properties, such as high dimensional stability based
on low water intake, high stiffness at low weight, high
resistance to heat distortion, and a long-term service
temperature of 260 °C. This high-performance plastic
is also easy to work into versatile shapes—an argument
not only for the filigree construction of stents
but also for use as an extremely thin-walled battery
housing in cardiac pacemakers, in dental technology,
or as an implant pump for patients who, for instance,
suffer from excess fluid in the abdomen as a result of
liver disease. 333
Orthopedics: A growing
field of applications
F F
+
na2CO3 – naF
– H2O O OH
– CO2 O
OH
MedICAL teCHnoLoGY
O
O
evonik produces veStAKeeP®
in a Class 10000 clean room,
which commenced operation
in April 2011
n
29
elements39 Issue 2|2012

30 MedICAL teCHnoLoGY
elements39 Issue 2|2012
333 Historical areas of application for high-performance
PEEK have been spinal implants, with a growing
interest in orthopedic devices and recently
accepted applications such as mouth, jaw, and skull
implants. For spine surgery, in the case of herniated
discs it can be advisable to remove the intervertebral
disc and replace it with a prosthesis called a “spine
cage.” Because the cage is supposed to create a bony
connection between the neighboring vertebrae, it has
a central cavity that can be filled with calcium phosphate
or the patient’s own bone material. Anatomically
shaped, it also has a toothed surface for high
“primary stability”—the stability achieved solely
through the clamping effect of the implant in the
bones.
While cage implants are machined from a higher
volume, off-the-shelf design, cranial implants have
moved to a more custom design for each patient. They
are used in patients with extensive skull defects to
protect the delicate brain—whether it is a congenital
malformation or the result of an accident or sickness.
To this end, a 3D X-ray scan is used to reconstruct
the exact three-dimensional anatomy of the surface
of the skull on a computer. The implant is then
adapted to this form and produced from a block of
PEEK using CNC milling technology.
A protective shield
for the skull
Compared to the long-established implant materials
titanium and cobalt-chromium, PEEK offers a variety
of advantages in orthopedics. The plastic scores
points in terms of ductility, elongation at break, and
fatigue resistance—blows or shocks to the implant are
effectively absorbed. From a patient perspective they
appreciate the extremely low thermal conductivity:
Cranial plates made of titanium, which have excellent
heat conductivity, can cause pain when temperatures
fluctuate dramatically in the environment around
them—for example, when the patient leaves a wellheated
house to go outdoors in winter.
VESTAKEEP® is also X-ray transparent and therefore
invisible in computer tomography and magnetic
resonance imaging, which allows easy monitoring of
bone growth and structure during the healing process.
Titanium and cobalt-chromium, on the other
hand, are opaque to X-rays and generate artifacts that
make it difficult to analyze the image.
There are sometimes cases in which the physician
wants to see the implant—he may, for example, check
Spine cage made of veStAKeeP® PeeK as a placeholder
for the space between the vertebrae, which recreates
the natural height of the intervertebral disc segment
As an added service, evonik also offers customers
CAe (computer-aided engineering). these
simulations provide information on how much
stress an implant receives and how it should
be constructed
X-ray image of 2-mm-thick veStAKeeP® platelets
that were layered in stacks of varying heights.
the absorption of the X-ray light increases as the
thickness of the layers increases (from bottom
to top). At the same time, it is possible to control
the absorption by varying the content of the
barium sulfate

In permanent bending tests, veStAKeeP® holds up three times
as long as a comparable competing PeeK product
veStAKeeP® Ultimate Standard PeeK polymer
Bending force [n]
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
0 100,000 200,000 300,000 400,000
Cycles
On the computer, 3D X-ray scans are used to
reconstruct the exact three-dimensional anatomy
of the skull. this is done for the purpose of
manufacturing skull implants, where the implant is
adapted to this form. CnC milling technology is
used to make the implant from one block of PeeK
Visible thanks to
barium sulfate
MedICAL teCHnoLoGY
the primary stability of a spine cage to make sure it
is properly seated, and whether the bones are actually
growing through it. This is why tantalum pins are
used in PEEK cages to make the implant visible. However,
incorporating the pins is a pretty tedious, laborintensive
post-processing step because they have to
be seated perfectly flush—the cavities around the pins
could cause problems during cleaning and sterilization.
For such cases, Evonik has developed a new
VESTAKEEP® PEEK variant that contains barium sulfate.
The idea comes from diagnostic radiology: Physicians
give patients a suspension made of barium
sulfate to display the esophagus, stomach and small
and large intestines, as well as mobility disorders of
these organs, in a CT image. Decades of experience
have proven the safety of using barium sulfate.
Studies by Evonik have shown that a content of
less than ten percent barium sulfate is enough to make
the implant visible on an X-ray, without generating
the kinds of disruptive artifacts caused by metals.
While the quality of the X-ray depends on a number
of factors—such as the strength of the X-ray radiation
and geometry, and the wall thickness of the implant—
a filling level of six percent barium sulfate is wellsuited
to a majority of applications. For example, a
spine cage can be portrayed clearly in an X-ray image,
and at the same time allows the monitoring of
bone growth in the cavity.
Osteointegration—the healing process in the bones
in which the bone cells graft to the implant and implant
surface, which normally takes about six to
twelve months—is essential for a stable fit for an implant
in the spinal column. The factors that influence
osteointegration are the individual properties of the
bone, the construction of the implant, and its surface
condition. With regard to the latter, titanium is
superior to PEEK, because the metal surface shows
improved grafting behavior, and the bone substance
anchors faster to the metal. Consequently, the 333
Coating should accelerate
bone growth
31
elements39 Issue 2|2012

32 MedICAL teCHnoLoGY
InteRVIeW
“Material artifacts diminish the image quality”
Dr. Markus Braun has two jobs: He is attending physician at
the Klinikum Westfalen in Dortmund and team doctor at
Borussia Dortmund football club. A specialist in sports medicine,
Braun knows a great deal—about premature signs of
exhaustion, fast healing processes, and the question of the
right implant material.
You’ll be standing on the sidelines again next weekend,
Dr. Braun: As a fan or a concerned physician?
Braun: All of the above! My first responsibility is as a physician,
but you automatically become a fan. When you spend
that much time with the players, you develop a personal
relationship beyond the normal doctor-patient relationship.
How much time do you actually spend with the players?
Braun: In any given week I spend a couple of hours on
the training ground almost every evening. And I go to
every game on the weekend. This time we go to Berlin:
We’ll be traveling from Friday afternoon to Saturday
evening. Then, it’s right back to training Sunday morning.
Editor’s note: Dr. Braun also had his work cut out for him
this weekend. In the win over Hertha BSC, Lukasz Piszczek
suffered a concussion and contusion of the skull when
he collided with another player.
everyone knows that professional athletes are especially
prone to injury. what long-term impact does this kind
of permanent stress have on the body?
Braun: Signs of exhaustion are often the first to appear.
By age 40 or 45, osteoarthritis is not unusual. Top athletes
are also frequent candidates for implants.
what criteria are crucial to the optimal implant?
Braun: Naturally, it would be best to completely forego
the use of foreign material. This is not always possible,
however. When foreign material has to be used, the material
properties are crucial: Biocompatibility is the first
consideration. Of course, the material must be as durable
as possible to prevent the need for a second operation.
Wear resistance and the right amount of elasticity are
crucial to stability. If these properties are not what they
should be, the implant can cause problems later.
elements39 Issue 2|2012
what materials do you work with?
Braun: There is a trend in medicine toward minimally
invasive surgery and away from large-scale operations.
Minimally invasive surgery makes only small incisions and
is controlled by imaging methods such as CT or MRT. In
the case of CT, small steel needles are used, and in MRT,
amagnetic materials such as carbon fibers or titanium.
Many materials are well known to generate artifacts on
the screen. How do you handle that?
Braun: Artifacts on the image are a disaster! For me, they
are a real problem, particularly with the equipment.
Braun shows a CT scan from a spinal column cementing procedure.
The area around the bone punch cannula is obscured
by the white of the artifacts. Without this buildup of artifacts,
I could work with greater precision.
the material PeeK doesn’t leave artifacts.
Braun: That is, in fact, an interesting feature of my work.
To get that kind of information, I usually have to do my own
research or trust the claims of the implant manufacturers.
Right now, there is no direct exchange between doctors and
material manufacturers. And these are the experts who
ultimately have to convert my requirements into concrete
technical data.

dr. Markus Braun, 45, is a trained medical specialist in orthopedics, and has
worked as the team doctor for first-division German soccer team Borussia Dortmund
since 2003. Previously, he spent five years as the team doctor for Rot-Weiß
Essen. In his full-time career, Braun has held various positions at clinics in Duisburg,
Essen, and Bochum. Since mid-2011, he has worked as attending physician
at the newly established sports medicine department at Klinikum Westfalen
(Dortmund). His specialty is minimally invasive surgery using imaging methods.
You are an expert in healing processes. It’s incredible sometimes
how fast professional soccer players recover even from
serious injuries: what’s the magic behind that?
Braun: (laughs) No magic! Essentially, there are three simple
reasons for that: First, the patients are young and in top
condition. This is why the body responds well to treatments
and therapies. Second, the players have access to their own
physical therapists, who create an optimal environment
that allows the natural healing processes to run their course
without interference. And third: The players go to rehab
far more for the optimal stimulation therapy under the
direction of skilled rehab trainers.
who decides whether a player is fit enough to play again?
Braun: That’s an interdisciplinary decision between the
physical therapists, rehab trainers, and the doctor. To some
extent, the player is responsible. Everyone tries for the
fastest possible recovery time.
Do you ever just have to say “no”?
Braun: That happens sometimes. The players always want
to get back on the field by the next game. At that moment,
they’re just highly motivated employees. We doctors have
to act as a brake if the risk to their health is too great.
MedICAL teCHnoLoGY
333
spinal segment that received the implant stabilizes
more quickly and is also able to take stress faster.
On the other hand, with an E-modulus of 3.3 Gigapascal
the elasticity of PEEK roughly corresponds to
that of a bone. This allows an optimal transmission of
force between the implant material and the natural
bone, which can in turn have a positive effect on bone
healing.
Both advantages can be combined by coating the
PEEK implant, which improves the grafting behavior
of bone cells on PEEK. Common coating materials are
hydroxylapatite, calcium phosphate, titanium, or a
special nano-coating. Depending on the material, they
are applied by vacuum plasma spraying, chemical
treatment, or physical vapor deposition.
Evonik is currently working on a number of formulas
in cooperation with various companies that
specialize in coating medical products. The current
results are quite promising, as tests by an independent
accredited testing laboratory show: VESTA-
KEEP® PEEK substrates, for example, demonstrate
exceptionally high tensile and shear strength—the
coatings adhere extremely well—and meet the requirements
of the FDA on these points.
The potential of PEEK polymers, however, is far
from being exhausted. To increase the rigidity of the
material even further, Evonik is working on a variant
strengthened with carbon fibers (CF). Potential
applications are plates and screws in the trauma
segment used by surgeons to stabilize broken or
fractured bones. The advantage lies in the fact that
patients receive a metal-free solution, which helps
those with allergic reactions to metal ions. Patients
can also undergo MRI examinations later on, which
is not possible with metal implants. Beyond this,
Evonik has even more development plans for promoting
the use of VESTAKEEP® PEEK as a metal substitute
in the body and more reports will follow as
VESTAKEEP® accomplishes these technologies. 777
Marc Knebel is Business
Manager of VESTAKEEP®
Medical in Evonik’s High
Performance Polymers
Business Line.
+49 2365 49-6783,
marc.knebel@evonik.com
33
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34 neWs
Lightweight design
solutions for China
automotive industry
The all-new electric car prototype was in the
spotlight at the Shanghai International Industry
Fair on Shanghai Motor’s booth, underscoring
the benefits of lightweight design solutions
from Evonik Industries. The new-energy
vehicle is powered by a lithium-ion bat tery.
The car uses several lightweight materials
from Evonik for various applications to support
reduced energy consumption and lower
emissions, such as PLEXIGLAS® material for
the side screens, rear window, and rear lamp,
as well as ROHACELL® rigid core material
and an epoxy resin formulation based on
VESTA MIN® hardener technology for the
engine hood. “We are proud to have played
a part in providing Shanghai Motor’s first
electric car with our lightweight and environmentally
progressive plastic solutions,” said
Xu Hang, Project Head of Lightweight Design
in China.
elements39 Issue 2|2012
The use of Evonik’s PLEXIGLAS®—a coated
PMMA to replace traditional mineral glass—
in the demo car reduces the weight of the
fixed side screens up to 40–50 percent. It also
helps to reduce energy consumption and CO 2
emissions. The advantages of PLEXIGLAS®
glazing include UV stability and good acoustic
properties, which means added value for the
vehicle as a whole. In addition, the car designer
can achieve more design freedom with
this material and gain sophisticated curve
structure which is not feasible by using traditional
mineral glass. The special grade of
PLEXIGLAS® material is also applied at the
rear lamps to achieve a special light diffusing
effect.
The engine hood uses the structural foam
ROHACELL® developed by Evonik. This ma -
terial is used as core in sandwich structures.
Compared to a steel engine hood, the sandwich
version reduces weight by up to 70 percent.
Due to the outstanding heat resistance
and remarkable mechanical strength of
ROHACELL® material, it can shorten curing
cycles at elevated temperatures above 130 °C
and offers a cost-efficient production.
Because of its high mechanical strength at
low densities, even small thicknesses of
ROHACELL® enable the construction of lightweight
body parts with extreme stiffness.
To support high output production of
composite body parts, a new epoxy resin formulation
based on VESTA MIN® hardener
technology was used in the resin infusion
manufacturing process. Short cycle times can
be realized to allow mass production.
Shanghai Motor’s first electric car
the first-ever electrical sports car with a weight below 1,000 kg
The performance data of the lightweight
electrical sports car Elise-E that Evonik
Industries presented at the Car Symposium
in Bochum are impressive: The vehicle
weighs 950 kg, has a power of 150 kW, accelerates
from 0 to 100 km/h in 4.4 seconds.
The top speed is limited to 200 km/h. The
purpose of exhibiting the vehicle was to show
the automotive industry what can be achieved
with Evonik’s expertise in chemicals.
Thanks to the combined use of innovative
storage technology, lightweight components,
and tires with reduced rolling resistance, the
sports car is the first-ever model to weigh less
than 1,000 kilograms. With the exhibit,
Evonik is demonstrating that electrical cars,
which are currently used primarily as city vehicles,
can also be part of the sports car segment.
The vehicle is a combination of automotive
components made with the specialty
chemical components of Evonik and the
sophisticated automotive technology of the
British sports car manufacturer Lotus. The
necessary power comes from a lithium-ion
battery with the globally unique CERIO®
storage technology. At the core of this battery
is the ceramic high-performance separator
SEPARION®, which is extremely thin and
highly heat-resistant. It separates the anode
reliably from the cathode and sets new standards
for lithium-ion cells in terms of cycle
stability, performance output, and safety by
using additional components. In addition, the
separator allows for the highly compact
design of the battery cells, which results in
high energy density at a low weight.
The weight of the electrical sports car’s
body has also been reduced with Evonik tech-
the lightweight electrical
sports car elise-e

nologies. The sandwich structure with the
structural foam ROHACELL® and carbon
fibers makes the body 60–70 percent lighter
than a comparable steel structure. Evonik
applied a new resin infusion process with an
innovative epoxy resin formula based on the
VESTAMIN® hardener technology to manufacture
it. This process allows for class-A sur-
veStAMID® Htplus in mass-produced gearshift levers
The high-performance polymer VESTAMID®
HTplus is making gearshift levers lighter.
A leading automotive OEM in Europe is now
using Evonik polyphthalamides (PPA) in the
serial production of a gearshift lever part. The
Turkish company Eurotec AS has compounded
the high-performance polymer specifically
for this purpose.
“Our decision in favor of VESTAMID®
HTplus M1000 was based on the good processing
characteristics and the outstanding
mechanical properties of the material,” says
Reha Gür, commercial director at Eurotec.
“This allowed us to offer the OEM a customized
product based on their future expectations
that not only weighs less, but is also
more economical than a previous solution and
bringing fast production possibilities with
environmentally friendly behavior.”
The original gearshift lever component
had been made of metal. Because of the special
property profile of PPA, Eurotec
switched its production to the high-performance
polymer. Other arguments in favor
of using PPA included high resistance to
faces and reliable quality in the serial manufacture
of composite automotive body parts.
Side windows made of PLEXIGLAS® also
contributed to the weight reduction, as they
have a weight-saving potential of 40–50 percent
compared to conventional mineral glass.
Vehicles with less weight and high power
have to be safe and sustainable on the road.
lubricants and oils that are typically present
in clutch systems.
In addition to high chemical resistance,
molded parts made from VESTAMID® HTplus
offer high dimensional stability and excellent
mechanical properties such as rigidity and
tensile strength. The high-performance polymer
is therefore ideally suited for use in conventional
metal applications.
High-performance plastics: Certified bio-based
The VESTAMID® Terra family of polyamides
from Evonik Industries has been certified as
“bio-based” by independent institutes. The
bio-based components have been certified
according to DIN ISO 10694, 1996-08, and
by the USDA’s Biopreferred® program. These
official laboratories used C14 trace carbon
analytics to verify that the carbon in these
prod ucts originates not from petroleum, but
biomass instead.
The polymers are partially or entirely
based on renewable feedstocks. The starting
material is the castor bean (Ricinus communis)
and its oil derivates, which are synthesized
into monomers that form the basis of the
polyamides. At present, three Terra products
are available: VESTAMID® Terra HS is based
on polyamide 610, which is the polycondensation
product of 1,6-hexamethylene diamine
(H) and 1,10-decanedoic diacid (sebacic acid
– S). Sebacic acid is derived from castor oil,
making Terra HS a 63 percent bio-content
polymer. VESTAMID® Terra DS is based on
polyamide 1010, which is the polycondensation
product of 1,10-decamethylene diamine
(D) and 1,10-decanedoic diacid. Both decamethylene
diamine and sebacic acid are
derived from castor oil, making Terra DS a 100
percent bio-content polymer. The 45 percent
bio-content polymer VESTAMID® Terra DD
neWs
In this fast-running electrical vehicle, this is
ensured by special lightweight tires, which
were developed with high-performance
Silica ULTRASIL® and the silane Si 363® manufactured
by Evonik. They reduce the rolling
resistance of the tires by approx. 20 percent,
leading to energy savings of about five percent.
veStAMID® Htplus makes
the gearshift lever component
resistant to lubricants
is based on polyamide 1012, which is the
polycondensation product of 1,10-decamethylene
diamine (D) and 1,12-dodecanedoic
diacid (D).
“The bio-based polyamides prove that
outstanding performance and responsible
sourc ing are not mutually exclusive,” says Benjamin
Brehmer, business manager for biopolymers.
“We impart precisely those properties
to our materials which the market expects
from high-performance plastics.” Thanks to
their excellent chemical resistance, low water
absorption, and good dimensional stability,
the polyamides are suitable for a vast number
of applications and processing techniques.
35
elements39 Issue 2|2012

36 InnoVAtIon MAnAGeMent
elements39 Issue 2|2012
Identifying and
developing new
markets
In the Coatings & Additives
Business Unit, the New
Business Development
Functional Unit generates
additional, sustainable
business beyond the
existing business areas.

Left: One rapidly
growing market that
Coatings & Additives
is working on in the
new Business Development
Functional Unit is
additive manufacturing.
this allows the layered
construction of complex
3D structures and components
that are not
possible or prohibitively
expensive to produce
by other methods
right: How can we
permanently protect
the touch screens of
tablet PCs and smartphones
against unsightly
scratches or fingerprints?
How do we
achieve a refined surface
reflection that also
allows the screen to
be read easily? In the
new Business Development
Functional Unit
of the Coatings & Additives
Business Unit,
evonik looks for innovative
answers
theRe Was a time when innovation was driven purely
by technology. In those days, advancements in the
broad R&D subject areas had a direct impact on a
company’s business activities. Today, this putative
causal chain from technological innovation to entrepreneurial
success is not exactly broken, but it has
become increasingly difficult for companies to continue
growing in established markets based on individual
technological innovations or an inventor’s flash
of genius. “Now, innovations are often created by developers
splicing together existing technologies, and
thus offering new applications to satisfy market demands
that have existed for a relatively short time,”
says Dr. Stephan Fengler, Vice President of the New
Business Development Functional Unit in the Coatings
& Additives Business Unit at Evonik Industries.
Such products as electronic devices with touchsensitive
screens have created new needs that can be
met by coatings. Before Apple’s iPhone became a
smashing success, such devices existed only in certain
niche markets. A growing number of users regularly
use their smartphone now to send e-mail, manage
appointments, shop online, and download apps,
so scratches, reflections, and fingerprints on touch
screens are unwelcome on an application associated
in this way with design and lifestyle. Since it is a common
problem, producers of smartphones and tablet
PCs have suddenly become interested in finding an
inexpensive, functional coating for the glossy displays.
InnoVAtIon MAnAGeMent
The example of the touch screen reveals how embedded
future innovations can be: Innovations outside
the core activities of Coatings & Additives that could
mean real additional business for Evonik. Identifying
and promoting this growth potential is the work of
New Business Development, which is headed by Fengler
and located in Darmstadt and Marl. “We explore
what kinds of needs new technologies are creating
on the market.”
So the task of New Business Development, in association
with the business unit’s Innovation Management
unit, is not to figure out how to generate
additional sales with individual products from the
business lines, but to adopt a mindset that goes beyond
business lines and is firmly rooted in innovation.
New technologies
generate new needs
Naturally, this kind of approach succeeds only if it is
designed for the intermediate to long term. “It calls
for new partnerships, new partners,” says Fengler.
“And this is why it’s so hard to reconcile with day-today
business.”
The New Business Development Functional Unit
has been a part of Coatings & Additives since 2006.
Over that time, its team has grown. But it has no laboratory
of its own—instead, it works in close cooperation
with the business lines of the business unit.
The team also stays in close contact with corporate
R&D, which Evonik pools in its strategic development
unit Creavis, and with other business units.
“New Business Development also seizes upon ideas
outside the business lines and co-finances projects
that, for example, are designed to run for several
years and take on the kind of risk that a business line
can’t assume by itself,” says Fengler. New Business
Development, then, is by no means a kind of extended
workbench of the business lines. Rather, it is a strategically
important component of Coatings & Additives,
which is investing considerable assets in the
unit. The management team of the business unit manages
its activities.
Coatings & Additives is at home in the world of
the paints, coatings, and printing inks and in the adhesives
and sealing compounds industries. The business
unit also develops custom-made functional polymers
for lubricant applications. These product groups
include crosslinkers such as expoxide resin curing
agents, and crosslinkers for powdered coatings,
333
37
elements39 Issue 2|2012

38 InnoVAtIon MAnAGeMent
when barnacles, mussels, bacteria, and fungi adhere to the hulls of ships, the results
are expensive. Frictional resistance and fuel consumption increase, and the hulls have to
be cleaned and repainted regularly. tin-based biocidal paints are banned, and even
copper-based coatings have some environmental impact. Here, substitutes are being
sought that protect the environment and have an exceptionally long service life
elements39 Issue 2|2012
333 polymer-based coatings, and adhesive agents, as
well as additives for coatings and lubricants. The
employees of Coatings & Additives are active at 21
production sites and technology centers worldwide.
In 2011, the business unit achieved annual sales of
more than €1.7 billion.
For New Business Development, the most attractive
applications in the field of classical coatings are
those that depend on a technology for their third
function, behind color and protection. These func-
New functionalities sought
tions can be self-cleaning or anti-fouling properties,
but also heat-repelling, electrically conductive, or
other properties. Often, they are based on nanostructuring
that, combined with the polymer expertise of
the business unit, produces thin functional layers.
“With functional coatings, the innovation and the
new business activity doesn’t necessarily translate
into large production volumes but into the value generated
by the user,” explains Fengler. This has a number
of advantages that limit the risk of a project. Coatings
in the range of a few nanometers require only
pilot-scale production facilities, so investment costs
remain manageable. “For the business unit, then, this
is a new way of thinking and working,” says Fengler.
In the field of crosslinking technologies, the most
attractive applications are in composites for lightweight
construction.
whether wind turbine, sailboat, or helicopter, the importance
of composites for structural components is growing, because they
combine low weight with high mechanical stability. Coatings &
Additives investigates how the business unit’s expertise can be
used to develop high-performance composites
Nine employees work in the New Business Development
Functional Unit at Coatings & Additives, including
project managers and those involved with
conceptualizing new ideas. These are chemists, physicists,
and business managers, all of whom are communicative
and open to new ideas. “They are team
players, who are able to establish networks across
organizational boundaries,” says Fengler.
Different kinds of employees are sought for a job
in New Business Development, including inventors,
the technically minded, entrepreneurs, project managers,
developers, and marketers. The inventor embodies
high creativity and scientific curiosity. The
technically minded are experts in certain technologies
and possess analytical skills. Willing to take risks,
the entrepreneur contributes skills in networking
and “selling” ideas. The “project manager” type stands
out for leadership qualities and structured thought.
The developer applies technical know-how and persistence.
And finally, the “marketer” type contributes
a broad-based understanding of the markets, as well
as the ability to persuade customers.
These complementary abilities are necessary for
the concrete work of opening up additional business.
“Because vague ideas can’t produce results,” says Fengler.
Even worse, various independent studies have
shown that innovation projects involve a high level
of risk, and, in the end, only a small percentage of
ideas actually reach their goal. But because success
is easier to sell than failure, New Business Development
has to know how to handle this demoralizing
reality. “We acknowledge it when employees take on
risky projects whose outcome is impossible to gauge,”

says Fengler. “And we don’t allow projects to die as
soon as we begin to encounter problems.”
Despite a culture that allows for mistakes, the
projects of New Business Development are subject to
strict project management. As a rule, a steering commit
tee evaluates the progress and detailed plan of a
project each quarter. Scenario projections, which are
continuously updated, are a way to assess the potential
economic benefits of a project.
To generate ideas for new business, New Business
Development uses the full range of tools of innovation
management. “It’s really important to allow the
team to come up with crazy ideas and find inspiration
from outside the company,” says Fengler. External
input can come from consultants, customer workshops,
or student teams that receive tricky problems
to solve from Evonik through its networks. Not surprisingly,
this also includes market analyses.
New Business Development is currently exploring
crowdsourcing: The team is using Internet-based networks
of experts to clarify problems that cannot be
solved based on existing know-how. “Oftentimes, this
is a question of how experts assess the potential of a
certain technology for a specific application,” explains
Fengler.
For an idea in New Business Development to become
a project, it must show sufficient business potential.
“We then develop a vision of how to expand
a market, and pour over this repeatedly as time goes
on,” says Fengler. If the project steering committee
approves it, employees first develop a concept and
then follow up with one or more laboratory tests.
New Business Development also involves colleagues
Each new idea is tested
from relevant business lines at this stage, wherever
possible. “Later on, if a business line is interested in
taking on a project in its sphere of responsibility, it
can do so,” explains Fengler. “Otherwise, we manage
the projects all the way to market launch.”
New Business Development is currently managing
about a dozen preliminary projects—projects that are
in the evaluation and conception phase, and in which
colleagues from the operative units of the business
unit are already involved. At the same time, New
Business Development is managing a few projects that
already have significant development resources.
“Some of these,” says Fengler, “will hopefully bear
fruit over the next five to ten years.” 777
InnoVAtIon MAnAGeMent
dr. stephan Fengler heads the New Business
Development Functional Unit in Evonik’s Coatings &
Additives Business Unit. After studying chemical
engineering at the Mendeleyev University of Chemical
Technology of Russia and earning his doctorate at the
Technical University of Berlin in the Department of
Polyme ri zation Technology, he began his career at
Röhm GmbH in Darmstadt in 1995. Fengler held several
positions in the Research, Production, and Marketing
unit before assuming his current duties in 2011.
+49 6151 18-4974, stephan.fengler@evonik.com
39
elements39 Issue 2|2012

40 desIGnInG WItH PoLYMeRs
elements39 Issue 2|2012
The world’s museums house priceless works of art.
New PLEXIGLAS® Optical HC put these exhibits in the
best possible light, permanently protecting them from
damage and depreciation.
YeaR afteR YeaR, millions of people flock to museums to marvel
at the artifacts of past cultures or the works of contemporary
artists: Drawings and paintings, sculptures and documents,
historical garments, consumer items, and weapons. Few of these
visitors are aware, though, that the professional protection
of the exhibits is just as vital as their presentation. Indeed,
Evonik is making a major contribution here. The company’s new
PLEXIGLAS® Optical HC, with its abrasion-resistant coating,
protects priceless exhibits against mechanical or chemical damage,
prevents them from yellowing, presents them without any
color distortion, and makes it possible to individually design display
cabinets, boxes, protective panels, and transport packaging.
One of the greatest challenges in exhibiting paintings, documents,
and art treasures is in achieving the optimal lighting. Ideally,
structures, colors, and details should be seen undistorted,
but the UV radiation in natural light often damages historical
material. This causes sketches, watercolors, and garments to lose
their original colors, pages of books to turn yellow and thin out,
and canvases and other materials to become brittle.
no color distortion
Protective measures
for treasures
This is why PLEXIGLAS® contains an integrated chemical UV
filter that filters out damaging high-energy radiation. At the same
time the material, with a transmission of 92 percent, is highly
transparent in the visible region of the spectrum, allowing
a clear and sharp view of the details and the structures of the
exhibits with colors remaining true: The polymer avoids color
distortion such as caused by, for example, the greenish tinge of
float glass.
A large number of archives and museums have already discovered
this amazing plastic for themselves. The U.S. National
Archive transported seminal U.S. historical documents in cus-
tom-made PLEXIGLAS® display cases throughout the country
for a traveling exhibition. The DeBeers Diamond Museum in
Johannesburg, South Africa, displays historical documents in
non-reflecting PLEXIGLAS®. In the Landtag (parliament) of the
German state of Hesse, sketches by the architect Georg Moller
were exhibited behind PLEXIGLAS® to mark the 150th anniversary
of his death. The slight curve of the glazing showed off the
sketches to best advantage.
But transmission and UV absorption are not the only requirements
for the professional protection of museum treasures. Visitors
leave behind their tracks: Fingerprints, sweat, and abrasion
due to zippers or handbags.
This is why the new PLEXIGLAS® Optical HC is equipped
with a special surface coating, ensuring excellent resistance to
mechanical impact and cleaning chemicals. This protects display
cases and picture glazing against distracting chips and scratches,
and the surface quality remains unchanged even with heavy
wear. A comparison with uncoated acrylic shows that the coating
increases abrasion resistance by a factor of ten, and more
than doubles the hardness.
well protected against chemical attack
Fingerprints and mechanical impact are unavoidable when
visitors come close to exhibits. Targeted chemical attacks on
artworks are risks of an entirely different dimension—but
PLEXIGLAS® Optical HC offers effective protection even against
these. Thanks to its surface coating, the material is resistant not
only to abrasion but also to chemicals. This makes it easier for
galleries and museums to meet their generally very stringent
security requirements.
But protecting artworks does not begin in the museum or
gallery. The art market is booming, and touring exhibitions give

At an exhibition in Darmstadt, the gallery owner opted for
PLeXIGLAS® Optical HC picture glazing to allow visitors
to view the pictures without color distortion (above).
For an exhibition of American historical documents that was
toured through the country, the U.S. national Archive
chose PLeXIGLAS® display cases because they offer protection
and are highly transparent and lightweight (below)
art lovers access to unique treasures almost all over the world.
Light, yet break-resistant packaging is needed to transport them.
Conventional float glass is heavy and breaks easily. Acrylic has
a break resistance that is higher by a factor of eleven, and is only
half as heavy. This offers key advantages for transport, and also
in the presentation of large and heavy exhibits.
PLEXIGLAS® Optical HC can be produced in thicknesses
of 1.5 to 16 millimeters, with variants individually adapted to
customers’ wishes: Panels, for example, may be transparent or
colored, and surfaces matted or antiglare. The material is
desIGnInG WItH PoLYMeRs
produced under clean-room conditions at a new combined
extrusion and coating line at the Weiterstadt site, which came
on-stream last year. Extruded PLEXIGLAS® panels are finished
here with a specially developed coating that provides an
abrasion- and chemical-resistant surface, with process, substrate,
and coating being optimally coordinated.
Great design freedom
Lastly, the material offers customers and artists vast freedom of
design: The material can be cut, drilled, sawed, rolled, scored
and broken, laser processed, and digitally printed. This allows it
to be used for shapes and artworks that cannot be realized in
glass. Individual panels can be glued together. An adhesive
developed especially for this purpose creates by chemical reaction
a high-strength and virtually invisible bond. Moreover,
PLEXIGLAS® Optical HC can be processed like standard
PLEXIGLAS®. However, line bending and thermoforming are not
suitable for machining abrasion-resistant coated PLEXIGLAS®
Optical HC because these processes could lead to damage or detachment
of the coating. The uncoated side of the panel, like
extruded acrylic, forms a strong and reliable adhesive bond.
Its excellent mechanical and optical properties coupled with
easy processability make abrasion-resistant PLEXIGLAS®
Optical HC of interest for a wide range of applications. In addition
to the exhibiting and transporting of artworks, it is used in
electronic displays, signage, furniture making, shopfitting, and
exhibition booth construction, as well as for industrial glazing,
for example to protect high-value machines and systems, and for
sectional doors. To put it briefly, PLEXIGLAS® Optical HC promises
the optimal solution for all applications calling for the transparency
and durability of glass combined with the lightness and
break resistance of a plastic. 777
41
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42 neWs
Student project presented in Marl
A group of students from the Technical University
Dortmund has created plans for a production
plant for highly pure 1-butene at
Marl Chemical Park. The students received
support for their project assignment from
Evonik’s Advanced Intermediates Business
Unit’s Innovation Management.
Students taking the course in bio and
chemical engineering at the TU Dortmund
are required to take part in a group project
assignment to conceptualize a specialty chemicals
plant. They have only six weeks to complete
their assignment, which entails composing
the process-related design and defining
the dimensions of a facility, with its columns,
reactors, receptacles, heat exchangers, pumps,
and compressors, as well as devising layouts,
optimizing energy utilization at their facility,
and doing the cost and economic-feasibility
accounting.
It has become something of a tradition for
the Innovation Management team at the
elements39 Issue 2|2012
Jason Chan (second
from left), head of the
raffinate facility,
detailed Performance
Intermediate’s integrated
C4 operations
Advanced Intermediates Business Unit to put
forward its proposal for the project to the
university’s Technical Chemistry Chair, Prof.
Arno Behr. This involvement adds to the practical
character of the assignment, while it also
serves as a proverbial bridge between academia
and industry. What’s more, the collaboration
allows the students to subsequently
make the comparison between their finished
theoretical concept, as devised on the
basis of information available to them from
literary sources, with actual facilities operating
in practice at Marl Chemical Park.
In 2011 the Innovation Management
team’s project proposal was for the conceptualization
of a facility for the manufacture of
highly pure 1-butene. The Performance Intermediates
Business Line runs an integrated C4
facility at the Marl site. Aside from butadienes,
MTBE, isononanol, and diisononyl
phthalate (DINP), a plasticizer, this, the only
plant of its kind anywhere in the world, also
More than 400 offshore pipes with veStAMID® nrG
VESTAMID® NRG 1001, a high-performance
polymer, can already be found in a total of
over 800 kilometers of pipeline. The polyamide
12 made by Evonik Industries has gone
into the making of more than 400 unbonded
flexible pipes to service the oil production
industry. Oil companies have been using
these pipes in their offshore projects for
years now.
What has made the polyamide 12 molding
compound so popular are its superior properties
over those of other polyamides used as
barrier layers in flexible pipes. Together with
Wellstream International Limited, Evonik
conducted intensive testing to demonstrate
compliance with the international norms API
17J for flexible risers and ISO 13628-2. The
tests praised the creep performance, ductility,
thermal expansion, methanol compatibility,
and hydrolysis resistance.
The molding compound has since been used
commercially for the manufacture of flexible
pipes. Specially developed VESTAMID® NRG
combines its technical advantages with
extraordinarily consistent product quality,
which ensures outstanding processability and
thus reduces setup times, scrap, and the risk
of extrusion faults.
For decades now, Evonik has been a
leader in the development and marketing of
high-grade polyamide compounds for line
systems in motor vehicles. This high degree
of expertise in the development of extrusion
compounds has now been carried over to
molding compounds for the thick-walled piping
systems which, thanks to their advantages
over existing systems, are increasingly
coming into use in the oil and gas industries.
Flexible: Offshore pipes
with veStAMID® nrG
makes 1-butene. 1-butene is a key comonomer
used predominantly to make high-grade
polyethylene and poly-1-butene.
The students executed their group assignment
in the 2011/2012 winter semester. They
then visited Marl Chemical Park for a guided
tour by Jason Chan, head of the raffinate facility,
who detailed the integrated C4 operations
to them. This group of aspiring young
academics proved to be particularly fascinated
by the two 80- meter-high columns at the
heart of 1-butene production.
The group was then invited to present its
own concept to an audience comprising staff
members from the business unit’s Production,
Engineering, and Research teams and from
Process Technology and Engineering. The
students impressed this audience with the
sound quality of their completed work. The
discussion which followed addressed the differences
apparent between the students’ concept
and a real facility and also brought forth
a number of tips concerning practical considerations.
The participants all agreed that educational
elements of this kind on the student
curriculum help to make studies more practice-oriented
as well as providing a platform
for contact between industry and students.
Thus, the scheme sees the Innovation Manage
ment unit making a valuable contribution
to Evonik’s em ployer branding endeavors.

Creavis starts with new BISOn project
The Biotechnological Synthesis of Carbo xyamines and Carboxyalcohols
Project, or “BISON” for short, was launched at the end of
last year. Creavis Technologies & Inno va tion’s Science-to-Business
Center (S2B) Bio technology is in charge of the project, the aim of
which is to use biotechnology to modify molecules that could be used
for polymer building blocks or fine chemicals in the future. Creavis
is the strategic research and development unit of Evonik.
Both renewable and petroleum-based raw materials are used as
starting materials in the BISON project. Customized microorganisms
then convert and modify these materials to produce the desired end
product. The actual modification of the molecules is done by selective
oxidation and amination–or what is also known as biotransformation.
BISON involves experts from the fields of microbiology, protein
engineering, and process development. Working with the Tech nical
Credits
Publisher
Evonik Industries AG
Corporate Innovation
Strategy & Management
Rellinghauser Straße 1–11
45128 Essen
Germany
scientific Advisory Board
Dr. Norbert Finke
Corporate Innovation
Strategy & Management
norbert.finke@evonik.com
editor in Chief
Dr. Karin Aßmann
Evonik Services GmbH
Editorial Department
karin.assmann@evonik.com
Contribution editors
Christa Friedl
Thomas Lange
Michael Vogel
neWs 43
University of Munich (Germany) and the S2B Center Biotechnology,
the consortium will develop the microbial cell factory for a future
generation of production processes that promise to be more sustainable
than the former process in the chemical in dustry. The German
Federal Ministry of Edu cation and Research (BMBF) is funding the
project, which will run for three years.
This project owes its success to the Car boxyFun project, which did
well and was also funded by the BMBF. In the future, BISON will take
the findings from Car boxyFun and transfer them to other biotechnological
processes so that the microbial cell factory can become reality.
Biotechnological processes are gaining in popularity in the chemical
industry. One of the reasons for this is that the biotech processes
involve lower investment costs than chemical processes. This means,
for example, that multi-level production stages can be mapped in a
single bacterium cell–the microbial cell factory.
Photos
Evonik Industries
Karsten Bootmann
Dirk Bannert
Martin Daniels
Dieter Debo
Stefan Wildhirt
Eurotec (p. 35)
Wellstream (p. 42)
Fotolia.com/Uwe Annas (p. 2, 11)
Corbis/Imaginechina (p. 6)
Fotolia.com/lunamarina (p. 38)
Fotolia.com/mirpic (p. 38)
Fotolia.com/Berni (p. 39)
Fotolia.com/graham tomlin (p. 39)
A glance into a
laboratory of the
Creavis’ Science-
to-Business Center
Biotechnology in
Marl
design
Michael Stahl, Munich (Germany)
Printed by
Laupenmühlen Druck GmbH & Co. KG
Bochum (Germany)
Reproduction only with permission
of the editorial office
Evonik Industries is a worldwide
manufacturer of PMMA products sold
under the PLEXIGLAS® trademark
on the European, Asian, African, and
Australian continents and under the
ACRYLITE® trademark in the Americas
elements39 Issue 2|2012

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