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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
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