The Green Power of Chemistry - Evonik

Evonik Magazine CHEMICAL INDUSTRY SPECIAL ISSUE September 2010Evonik MagazineCHEMICAL INDUSTRY SPECIAL ISSUE September 2010The Green Powerof ChemistryDevelopments in the field of chemistrymake a sustainable lifestyle possible

CONTENTS 5FOREWORD3 There’s No Progress Without ChemistryProf. Hans-Jörg Bullinger, President of the Fraunhofer Society, on thechallenges facing chemistry at the end of the oil eraDEBATING6 DialogueDr. Klaus Engel debates Dr. Thilo Bode on reconciling the economy andecology. What responsibility does the chemical industry have?Uta Heinrich and Volkhard Czwielong are working for progress in Marl Page 42DEVELOPING12 German Chemicals Take On the WorldThe new markets are on the other side of the globe, where new playersfrom China, India, and the Middle East are taking their place on theworld’s chemicals stage. How is the German chemical industry meetingthe challenge?MP4-12C Page 32PHOTOGRAPHY: MCLAREN AUTOMOTIVE, KIRSTEN NEUMANN, BASF SE, CATRIN MORITZ, YOUNICOS,MONTAGE: THOMAS DASHUBER, ULLSTEIN BILD/AISA; COVER ILLUSTRATION: AXEL KOCKAll solar technology is chemistry Page 46Dr. Bettina Lotsch, a professor at age 32 Page 52DESIGNING28 Günter VerheugenThe chemical industry used to spark fierce debates, but today people aretalking about the many solutions it offers for future problems. An essaySHAPING32 Chemistry Gives Automobiles WingsNew materials and technologies are ushering in a new age of automotivedesign, and permanently changing the way we look at mobilityEXPERIENCING42 The Battle of the BackyardMany Germans immediately get up in arms whenever an industrial project isbeing planned—even if the plans call for a biogas facility or wind turbine.RECOGNIZING46 Catching Rays with ChemistryWhether its solar cells or energy storage systems, energy-efficiency technologieshave one thing in common: They are based on discoveries in chemistryACHIEVING52 The Women After CurieA hundred years ago, Prof. Marie Curie won the Nobel Prize for chemistry.Today many women study chemistry, but few go on to occupy top positionsLIVING58 Microzoos for Saving the WorldTom Schimmeck reports on biochemistry, the solution to global problemsManagement:Manfred Bissinger,Dr. Kai Laakmann,Dr. Andreas SiefkePublication Manager:Dr. Ingo KohlscheinProduction:Claude Hellweg (Head),Oliver LuppLithography: PX2, HamburgPrinting: Neef + Stummepremium printing, WittingenCopyright: © 2010 byEvonik Industries AG, Essen.Reprinting only with thepermission of the publisher.The contents do notnecessarily reflect the opinionof the publisher.Contact:Questions and suggestions onthe contents of the magazine:Telephone+49 201 177-3831,Fax+49 201 177-2908,e-mailmagazin@evonik.comQuestions about orders orsubscriptions:Telephone+49 40 68879-139Fax+49 40 68879-199e-mailmagazin-vertrieb@hoca.deCHROMA-CHEM®,COLORTREND®,DYNACOLL®, DYNAPOL®,PLEXIGLAS®, ROHACELL®,STOKO®, and VESTAMID®are registered trademarks of EvonikIndustries AG or one of itssubsidiaries. They are indicated incapital letters throughout the textYou can also find thisissue of Evonik Magazineonline atwww.evonik.comEvonik Magazine CHEMICAL INDUSTRY SPECIAL ISSUE September 2010

6 DEBATING“The Million-Dollar Question”Dr. Thilo Bode is thefounder of the Foodwatchconsumer protectionorganization. Prior to that,he served as an executive atGreenpeace. His mostrecent book is AbgespeistEvonik Magazine: Dr. Engel, you are the CEO of aninternationally operating industrial group that is soonto be listed on the stock market. What do you feelmore committed to: your shareholders’ earnings or thecommon good?Klaus Engel: That’s one of the million-dollar questions.The most recent financial crisis demonstratedthat a one-sided focus on short-term profit is not veryhelpful. It also revealed that although we’ve talked alot about sustainability during the past few years, wehaven’t really taken the topic seriously. We need tothink about future generations. But to answer yourquestion: Acting responsibly also means balancing differentinterests. We need capital in order to do business,but we also have to use labor and other resourcescarefully and think hard about how to create value forall of the stakeholders.Dr. Bode, you studied economics, and you’ve verysuccessfully served in several positions, some in theprivate sector. You were the head of Greenpeacefor 12 years, and in 2002 you established the Foodwatchconsumer protection organization. Did you do anintentional about-face, or has your career simply developedin a logical direction?Thilo Bode: If I could first briefly comment on Dr.Engel’s answer…Engel: … yes, please.Bode: First of all, the financial crisis did not occur becauseof the pursuit of short-term profit but insteadbecause governments gave bank managers instrumentsthat rendered basic banking regulationsinoperative. Secondly, what you said about dividedresponsibility is sugar coating. Everybody knowsthat when things get difficult, companies must thinkprimarily about their profits—and there’s absolutelynothing wrong with that. After all, it’s not their jobto save the world. Please don’t take this personally,but I consider all the babbling about corporate socialresponsibility to be nothing but hot air. Now to answerthe question: I didn’t switch sides. I’m still fighting onthe same front, it just involves different aspects. Theenvironment is a legally protected common good, andconsumer protection—admittedly a horrible phrase—involves protecting individual consumer rights. In bothcases, the idea is to roll back the inordinate amount ofinfluence that business has on government. Basically,we’re foot soldiers fighting for the common good—butwithout weapons.

8 DEBATING“ I reject the suggestion put forthby business that all problems can beovercome with technology” Thilo BodeOne of the biggest issues in recent decades hasbeen how to reconcile economy and ecology.Do you have the feeling that progress has beenmade—and if so, what type of progress?Bode: Reconciliation has not succeeded, and anyonewho says anything different is not paying attention tothe facts. We probably lost the battle against globalwarming long ago, and we’re losing the fight to maintainbiodiversity, which is the second major issue. Nowto the microeconomic level: When Mr. Engel uses hisamino acids to make poultry feed processing a littlemore efficient and thus helps to reduce greenhouse gasemissions from meat production, he’s making moneywhile he’s doing it, and what he does is also good forthe climate. However, this microeconomic reconciliationof ecology and economy changes nothing in termsof the negative global situation.Are we experiencing a painful process that will requireeven more courage on our part in the future?Engel: We have set ourselves an ambitious goal, andI am convinced that we can only achieve it throughconstructive dialogue with all the parties involved—businesses, governments, unions, churches, and ofcourse NGOs. We need to organize this dialogue inan impartial manner. We in the chemical industry, atleast, are striving to reconcile economic, environmental,and social needs.Bode: You wanted to answer the question about reconcilingeconomy and ecology. We’ve already had enoughdialogue. All everyone does is talk…Engel: … so why isn’t anything happening, Mr. Bode?Bode: Because responsibilities aren’t being clearly delineatedand there has been no clear commitment bybusiness to accept the role of a strong government. Weneed laws and regulations. There can be no sustainabilitywithout national and international intervention inthe market. Such intervention has to happen, and companiesfinally need to honestly answer the question asto the role government should play.Do governments and the political parties that formthem understand what’s at stake here?Engel: It’s true that economic and environmental concernshave not yet been reconciled in all areas. We needto keep working toward this goal, as it is still a very importanttask. On the other hand, I believe it’s unfortunatethat during the crisis the government degeneratedinto a type of repair-shop outfit. Government shouldnot try to act as though it were better at conductingbusiness than the businesses themselves; instead, itshould establish the key framework conditions. Weneed to reach a basic consensus that is acceptable forall social groups on how we wish to shape the future.And it’s important that the NGOs are involved here aswell, Mr. Bode.Bode: I don’t agree with your view of the role of government.Seeking consensus is not the main job of thestate. The primary task of government is to weigh conflictinginterests and then to make decisions—if necessary,against the interests of business. What I’ve seen,however, is that governments have largely surrenderedtheir regulating function. This was very clearto see during the crisis, when governments were unableto implement the necessary capital market regulations,not because they didn’t want to but because theinfluence of the financial sector was too strong. Corporationsare working both sides of the street. On theone hand, they produce glossy brochures about socialresponsibility, while on the other hand they de-

DEBATING 9ploy armies of lobbyists fortified with billions of eurosin order to shoot holes in the regulations and establishedstandards that govern sustainability. This hasto change.So there’s no chance that we’ll see an allianceof reason and responsibility between government,industry, and the citizens?Bode: That’s completely idealistic. What we need todo is to look at the conflicting interests of the partiesinvolved. Businesses have an obligation to generateprofit for themselves and their shareholders. Mercedesis the market leader for large sedans; it can’t simplystart building bicycles overnight. That would be economicsuicide. Alliances? What’s supposed to come ofthat? Either business gets its way or we get solutionswithout substance and a dreadful type of regulationchaos, simply because no one has clearly addressed thecompeting interests involved. What we need is clearand honest debate and less cheap talk.Engel: I’m not that pessimistic. After all, we’ve madegood progress—and in a few cases even done too muchgood, if you look at some of the regulations we nowhave. Mr. Bode, some of our laws here in Germany arenow more restrictive and far-reaching than those in anyother country worldwide. We therefore have problemswith competitiveness because we’ve decided to be thepioneer in environmental technology. That’s all right,and we can accept it as long as jobs aren’t transferredout of the country and we don’t dismantle our industrialbase. We put a lot of effort into the EU’s REACHlegislation in order to regulate the use and productionof chemical substances—to enhance consumer safety,among other things. But we also have to state clearlythat if we want to live in a no-risk society, we’ll endup sitting on the sidelines of the development of keyfuture technologies and all the opportunities they offer.And it also means that people will have to sacrificesome of their prosperity.Bode: If we succeed here in defining clear positions onboth sides, then we’ll already have accomplished a lot.Our goal in this discussion is not necessarily to generatea single opinion. The chemical industry has manufacturedsome horrible products over the years andcontaminated the world with toxic chemicals. Nevertheless,it’s quite useful that you are now developingtechnologies for vehicle tires that reduce fuel consumptionby ten percent—hats off to you! Still, we needto establish a consensus that this is not enough. Sustainabilityrequires us to think in broader terms. Of coursecompetitiveness plays a role, and I’ll also concede thatyou’ve accomplished some things. My point is that it’sstill not enough.Engel: I agree. I can understand your criticism, and Ibelieve some of it is justified, but we should nonethelessnot really try to turn back the clock and create paradise-likeconditions so that we can live like Adam andEve. We can’t do that, and we don’t want to either.Can you be more specific?Engel: Here in Europe, we already live in a highly developedregion, which is why we don’t have the right totell the emerging markets they’re not allowed to catchup with us. Even though we’re giving them excellentadvice, that realization is also part of the challenge ofpreventing the planet from getting even further outof balance. Whether it’s energy consumption, climatechange, or the question of how we can feed all thesepeople, and what that will mean for the agriculturalsystem, the water supply, and all other resources—mybelief is that we can only overcome this challenge if weutilize the technologies that are already available today.This process can pose risks and will consume resources.However, people need to know that the luxurywe enjoy cannot simply be ordered on the Internetwithout any risk.Bode: Again I have to disagree with you. Along with industry’slack of acceptance of the role of government,you’ve also got another blind spot: the limits of growth.I’m a huge fan of technology—but the only thing wecan do with it and the associated increase in resourceefficiency is to postpone the day when the limits arereached. Moreover, it’s for society to decide whetherit wants to accept the risks of technology. I reject thesuggestion put forth by business that all problems canbe overcome with technology. The best example is theelectric car. Here, the automotive industry wants usto believe that we can keep driving a two-ton Daimler—allwe have to do is to stick a plug into an electricsocket, otherwise everything stays the same. That’snot going to happen, of course. The electric car willremain strictly an urban vehicle in the foreseeable future,and the heavy highway gas guzzler will become athing of the past because we’re going to run out of oil.So if you want to call for an alliance of reason, pleasebe more honest.Engel: That’s a good example to get a serious discussionof the problems going. Okay, let’s talk about“We in thechemicalindustry, atleast, arestriving toreconcileeconomic,environmental,and socialneeds”Klaus EngelEvonik Magazine CHEMICAL INDUSTRY SPECIAL ISSUE September 2010

10 DEBATING“We probablylost the battleagainst globalwarminglong ago”Thilo BodeMeeting in Essen:Greenpeace and Foodwatchactivist Thilo Bode (left)poses critical questions toEvonik CEO Klaus Engelin a debate hostedby Manfred Bissingerthe hype associated with the electric car. Obviouslya lot of what’s being propagated now is of a dubious natureand questionable from an objective point of view.I would much prefer it if we realized that electric vehiclesare an option that will give us the confidence tosolve a key future issue, rather than hyping them likethe bubbles we’ve all seen burst in the past. The factis that we can’t get people to abandon their desire forindividual mobility—not here and not in the emergingmarkets. And if we’re going to take sustainability seriouslyover the long term, we have to accept the factthat fossil fuel resources are finite.Oil most of all?Engel: Definitely—and there are much better uses foroil than simply burning it in an automobile.Bode: In 2020 we will have perhaps one million electriccars on the road in Germany and six million worldwide.That’s the pitiful reality. The other reality is thatall the additional oil that’s been extracted since 2000has come from offshore wells, and we’re all familiarwith the dangers and risks involved with those. Justthink about Deepwater Horizon and the Gulf of Mexico.For that reason alone, we’re only deluding ourselvesif we think that individual mobility will still bethe same in 30 years as it is today, only electric. So theindustry is not coming clean with consumers. What weneed to do right now is to drastically reduce the fuelconsumption of automobiles.Engel: Electric drives represent one option for makingthe individual mobility of the future more environmentallyfriendly. The other option is to developtechnologies that conserve fuel. Think about how longwe’ve been talking about hydrogen. I’m not trying toplay off one option against the other; I’m just saying Ithink various options are important. What I definitelydon’t want to see is a situation where we fail to act intime, and then one day start demanding that a newtechnology be developed in five years because oil hasnow really become scarce, prices are increasing, andsocial tension is rising. It takes decades to develop alternativetechnologies. That’s why I’m optimistic aboutelectric mobility. I’m also aware that the petroleum industryhas forfeited a great deal of credibility becauseof Deepwater Horizon. We can’t allow such things tooccur if we want the risks and opportunities associatedwith our technology to be assessed free of ideologicalbias. If industry says something is safe, then it has tobe safe. However, even the worst setbacks should notbe allowed to stop us from seeking an open dialogue.And that should be the case whether the issue is electricmobility, nanotechnology or biotechnology. I don’tmean to be trite here, but at the end of the day, life itselfis perilous.Bode: At least the Deepwater Horizon disaster hasdirected massive attention to the fact that automobileswill remain linked to oil for many years to come.As a consequence, we urgently need to reduce fuelconsumption.Has Deepwater Horizon also been a disaster forlobbyists—and did they mislead the U.S. governmentby giving it a false sense of security?Bode: The situation with lobbyists is a permanent catastrophe.Governments are already allowing businessto determine policy to a large extent—and this is happeningat every level.Engel: Mr. Bode, aren’t NGOs also lobbies?Bode: Absolutely—we’re lobbyist organizations, nodoubt about it.Engel: There’s nothing wrong with lobbying per se…Bode: …you’re absolutely right. Constitutionallyspeaking, there have to be lobbies because the governmentcannot make proper decisions by itself. A democraticgovernment actually has an obligation to listento different interest groups, consider their proposals,and then make decisions in the interest of the commongood. However, the lobbying power of NGOs is nothingcompared to that of industry, with its political donations,privileged access to politicians, personal relationshipswith government officials, and threats toeliminate jobs.So what do you propose?Bode: We have to stop deluding ourselves that an appealto morality will cause companies to conduct businesswith sustainability in mind. What we need aresustainability-minded entrepreneurs who also regardthemselves as good citizens. And I may be talking morelike a capitalist than you now, but what’s being delegatedtoday to corporations, to so-called global responsibility,is customer fraud.Engel: That doesn’t help much in terms of solvingproblems.Bode: You’re right—and that’s why you also need tobe extremely careful with noble claims such as “Wecorporations are taking on global responsibility.” Thechemical industry cannot save the world! Sometimesit’s better to set your sights a little lower.

DEBATING 11Dr. Engel, does this mean that you’re about totake on a new responsibility?Engel: To be completely open and personal here, Idid a lot of soulsearching while I was trying to decidewhether I should run for president of the GermanChemical Industry Association. I have a pretty busyworkday. I don’t suffer from boredom—we face a lot ofbig challenges at the company. In the end, I decided tomake myself available because there are a lot of overlappingissues that are worth addressing. I’m taking onthis responsibility because I’m convinced we need tomake it clear to the public that Germany must remainan industrial nation.Bode: Is anyone questioning that?Engel: Mr. Bode, you’d be surprised by the kinds of discussionswe have to face these days…Bode: … with whom?Engel: With neighbors, employees, political parties,and NGOs. For example, with regard to questions like:Where are we planning to build new power plants inthe near future? What kind of plants will they be? Whattype of infrastructure do we need to have? Anti-industrysentiment has grown in our country, but we neverthelessneed to have manufacturing industries.Bode: I’m entirely on your side here. Germany mustand should remain an industrial nation.Engel: There’s also another point that’s important tome: It’s time we took a balanced view of the opportunitiesand risks associated with technology. This appliesto nearly everything we do every day, but it’s especiallyimportant in terms of the chemical industry.There are a great many things whose continued developmentis worth fighting for—for example, biotechnologyand nanotechnology. Of course there are examplesof where things have gone wrong, but the fact is thatthe only way we can overcome the great challenges weface is if scientists and engineers achieve technologicalprogress. Yes, we also need to change the way peoplein our society behave and reach a new consensuson our value priorities and the way we should live ourlives. But we also have to take into account the fact—aswe talked about before—that we won’t be able to keeppeople in the emerging markets from having a television,a second car, or a steak dinner. So we need consensuson this matter as well. Yes, we see the risks, andwe understand that regulation is necessary—for example,we need to make sure that no one is seriously affectedby our chemical production activities. The ef-“ And if we’re going to takesustainability seriously over thelong term, we have to acceptthe fact that fossil fuel resourcesare finite” Klaus Engelfect on people, the environment, and natural resourcesshould be as beneficial as possible. I plan to work onthat, but there’s no way I want to create the illusionthat we can maintain our prosperity, not to mentionincrease it, without consuming resources and withoutrisk. Making such a claim would be like promisingto square a circle.So you are talking about an alliance of reason after all.But what is the goal?Engel: I want to help further develop and expand themagic triangle between ecology, economy, and socialneeds. For me, that means we need to talk to each otherwithout bias and with respect, as we have done in thisdiscussion. That’s how we learn from one another.Bode: My goal is not to appeal to people to becomebetter human beings. Instead the important thing is toshape progress in a way that leads to an honest considerationof various interests that allows governments tomake truly autonomous decisions. Ultimately, my visionis one of a democracy that actually functions theway it should.Evonik Magazine CHEMICAL INDUSTRY SPECIAL ISSUE September 2010

DEVELOPING 13BASF:LUDWIGSHAFENLudwigshafen is BASF’s largestproduction location worldwideCatalysis research is carried out atthe “Chemicals Research andEngineering” competence centerat the Ludwigshafen location.Laboratory Director Dr. GodwinMabande is one of the 33,000 employeesat BASF Ludwigshafen.The ten-square-kilometer site ishome to the company’s headquartersand the center of its researchand production

14 DEVELOPINGBAYER: SHANGHAIThe plant in the Shanghai Chemical Industry Parkis Bayer’s largest foreign investment projectBayer has a production facility for thepolycarbonate Makrolon at the Shanghai(China) location. In the polycarbonatecolor laboratory, the chemists Polo Zou (left)and Jenny Yan (right) work on the colorchips made of Makrolon. These color chipsare used in quality control and whennew colors are being developed. Bayer hasapproximately 21,600 employees in theAsia-Pacific economic regionEvonik Magazine CHEMICAL INDUSTRY SPECIAL ISSUE September 2010

DEVELOPING 15Trying to describe the German chemical industry as a whole is like trying to explain the range ofproducts in a large department store: There’s simply everything. In keeping with this analogy, youcan also say that the chemical industry even includes architects and construction companies—likethose who help build department stores. The German Chemical Industry Association (VCI) alone representssome 1,600 German chemical companies and German subsidiaries of foreign corporations,whose areas of expertise range from the development of highly specialized additives to the planningand construction of process engineering facilities. Plastics, medications, pesticides, creams, oils,glues, paints, and detergents are also part of the industry’s portfolio. The list goes on and on—and thecompetition in the international chemical sector is very fierceCompetition among the newchemical-producing nations has begunPHOTOGRAPHY: BAYERage. AlixPartners predicts that the share of globaldemand for chemicals that is accounted for by China(not counting the pharmaceutical or petroleum industries)will rise from the current 9 to 15 percent by 2020.The firm’s experts also estimate that the Middle East’sshare of demand will rise from 4 to 12 percent duringthe same period, while the figure for Western Europewill fall from 25 to 18 percent. The demand for chemicalsis in fact rising in Western Europe, but the marketsoutside the region are simply growing much faster.In the passing lane“Together with the establishment of extensive new productioncapacity, the cost benefits in the Middle Eastwill put substantial pressure on manufacturers of basicchemicals and plastics,” says Tillmann. The rapidlygrowing companies in the Middle East region are exportingmore of their products to China, and they’realso moving into Western markets. They are taking fulladvantage here of their proximity to sources of oil andnatural gas, as well as their large brand-new facilities.According to AlixPartners, the Middle East alone willexpand the global market capacity for polyolefins suchas polyethylene and polypropylene (key raw materialsfor the chemical industry) by eight percent by the end of2010. The companies in this region are being helped bythe expansive economic policies of their governments.The share of global economic activity that is accountedfor by the developing countries and emerging marketswill soon surpass that of the traditional industrializednations for the first time. The weighting for these aspiringnations will reach 57 percent by 2030, accordingto the Organization for Economic Cooperation andDevelopment (OECD).The future leaders of the global chemical market can alreadybe clearly discerned today: “Cheap raw materialsand rapidly growing sales markets have provided companiesin the East with a solid foundation for moving intothe global market,” says Falter. Relatively new playersfrom the Middle East and Asia, such as Saudi Basic IndustriesCorporation (SABIC), China Petroleum & ChemicalCorporation (Sinopec), and the Indian company RelianceIndustries Limited have embarked on a path ofrapid growth and are on the verge of taking over thetop positions in the global chemical industry. “Companiesthat started out as petroleum processing firms latermoved into basic polymers and are now specialty chemicalenterprises,” says Rings. These new global playersare also benefiting from state-of-the-art industrial facilities.“Although German plants have been optimized toan extent that makes them world champions of energyefficiency, many of them are 20 years old,” says OliverRakau, an economist and chemical industry expert atDeutsche Bank Research. “What’s more, factories in theMiddle East are being built right next to oil wells.” Majormarket advantages are also being achieved throughthe extremely low raw material costs associated with“stranded gas”—small natural gas fields for which theconstruction of pipelines to consumer regions wouldbe unprofitable. On top of that, South America—especiallyBrazil—is now looking to advance further in theglobal chemical club.Still, most German companies have done theirhomework very well. “In terms of growth and profitability,they’ve outperformed chemical companies inthe U.S., Japan, and the rest of Asia on the world marketand during the latest crisis,” says Falter, who also pointsout that the German chemical industry has createdEvonik Magazine CHEMICAL INDUSTRY SPECIAL ISSUE September 2010

16 DEVELOPINGThe German chemical industryhas done its homeworkPHOTOGRAPHY: KARSTEN BOOTMANNcompetitive revenue and cost structures over thepast 20 years. “The chemical sector increased its revenuesby 57 percent to €176 billion between 1995 and2008,” Falter reports. Companies have consistentlytaken advantage of growth opportunities in internationalmarkets, thus stabilizing their positions in theirhome markets, according to Falter. A further element oftheir strategy is energy and resource efficiency. “Overthe past 20 years, the chemical industry in Germany hasreduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 37 percent, despitedoubling its production,” says Tillmann.Major German companies have long since stoppedthinking in terms of nationality, as BASF, Bayer AG,Linde AG, Henkel AG & Co. KGaA, Lanxess AG, EvonikIndustries AG, Wacker Chemistry AG, and others arenow focusing on attaining international technologyleadership in their respective fields. These days, theynot only generate most of their revenue abroad but arealso shifting their still balanced workforce numbers foremployees at home and abroad in favor of their growinginternational production locations.Speaking at the 2010 BASF Annual Meeting, thecompany’s CEO, Dr. Jürgen Hambrecht, predicted that“50 percent of the future growth of the chemical industrywill take place in Asia.” BASF, the leading chemicalcompany in the global rankings, has therefore set itselfambitious goals, such as achieving annual growthin the Asia-Pacific region that is two percentage pointshigher than that of the market and generating 70 percentof its regional revenues with local production. Thiswill require capacity expansion, and to this end BASFwill invest $1.4 billion in the expansion of its Nankingfacility in China. Bayer AG—Germany’s second-largestchemical company in terms of revenues—is also steppingup its activities abroad. Between 2006 and 2009, thecompany increased its workforce in the BRIC countries(Brazil, Russia, India, and China) by more than 40 percent,to 15,000. Bayer also plans to invest €2.1 billionbetween now and 2012 solely for capacity expansion atits MaterialScience subgroup in China. In addition, thecompany is investing €100 million in a pharmaceuticalresearch center in Beijing.Step by step into global marketsThe German presence is thus growing throughout thedynamic Asian region—and Evonik is no exception. InShanghai, for example, Evonik has invested approximately€250 million in a facility for producing methylmethacrylate (MMA), which is used to manufacturePLEXIGLAS. The plant is part of a networked installationat a huge chemical park on the outskirts of Shanghai.“Despite the economic crisis, we made the secondlargestinvestment in our company’s history because webelieve in China’s future,” explains Evonik’s CEO, Dr.Klaus Engel. Medium-sized companies aren’t idly standingby either: “Small and medium-sized companies arenow specializing in specific products and thus focusingon a smaller group of customers,” says Tillmann. Oneapproach that usually works is for small companies to goglobal through their relations with globally active majorcustomers in their home market. This helps them avoidteething problems and financial losses.The chemical sector is generally well prepared tocope with the increasing global competition. The Germanchemical industry’s solid position is largely due tothe structural transformation that has taken place overthe past few years. Throughout most of their histories,German chemical companies were highly integratedEvonik Magazine CHEMICAL INDUSTRY SPECIAL ISSUE September 2010

DEVELOPING 17EVONIK: THE NETHERLANDSAlmost 300 employees at five locations worldwide work on productsand solutions which are marketed underthe brand names COLORTREND and CHROMA-CHEMThe Evonik Business Unit Coatings & Additives comprises atotal of 21 production locations and technology centersworldwide. Patrick Peeters is employed by the ColorantsProduct Line. He works in Maastricht (The Netherlands)in the Color Service Department, which develops the colorrecipes for the paint and coatings industry. Evonik ColortrendB.V. has approximately 100 employees in MaastrichtEvonik Magazine CHEMICAL INDUSTRY SPECIAL ISSUE September 2010

18 DEVELOPINGMERCK: MEXICO CITYProducts for the Latin American pharmaceuticals market aremanufactured in the Mexican capitalThe quality of the pharmacological raw materialsis controlled in the Manufacturing Conditioningof Injectable Substances & Liquids department.Chemists Estela Estrade and David Arias check thequality in the Raw Materials Laboratory. Merckhas 1,300 employees in MexicoEvonik Magazine CHEMICAL INDUSTRY SPECIAL ISSUE September 2010

DEVELOPING 19Today’s specialistsdon’t necessarily need oilPHOTOGRAPHY: MERCKentities that covered the entire value chain—fromraw materials such as ethylene and naphtha to pharmaceuticalagents and bulk plastics. Two processes thenbegan to occur around 20 years ago. The first was horizontalspecialization, which saw major chemical companieswith strong roots in their respective home marketstransform themselves into global leaders in theirsegments that are continually expanding their core areasof expertise. The other development was verticaldeconstruction—i.e. the outsourcing of units and servicessuch as logistics, maintenance, human resources,data processing, and even customer relations. Complexinternal corporate structures were thus reorganizedwith the goal of creating flat and virtual value creationnetworks. Both processes would ultimately help makeGerman companies successful around the world. Companiestoday are focusing more and more on attaining ormaintaining market leadership in individual segments.Wacker Chemistry is a good example: Although it’s onlyranked 12th in the German chemical industry in termsof revenue, the company is number three in the worldfor silicone production—and the world market leader forsilicone for building protection applications.“Horizontal integration isn’t over yet, however,” saysTillmann, who points out that takeovers, acquisitions,and spinoffs are still common in the submarkets. Thistrend will continue in the future. “After a decline in takeoverslast year, we’re once again seeing more active buyersand sellers on the market,” says Dr. Volker Fitzner, achemical industry expert at PricewaterhouseCoopers.The pressure to consolidate varies among the marketsegments, however. “Whereas the agrochemical sectoris almost completely consolidated, there’s a high level ofconsolidation pressure in cosmetic industry raw mate-rials, for example,” says Rings. A recent example of thisis provided by the BASF takeover of Cognis. Rings expectsChinese companies to get more involved in mergersand acquisitions in the future: “The only surprisingthing is that this isn’t already happening on a large scale.But it’s possible that China first wants to consolidate itsown highly fragmented specialty chemicals industry—and there’s a lot of movement in that market now.”Independence through specializationSpecialization and specialty chemicals are the buzzwordstoday—and Evonik has gotten the message as well.“Our plan for Evonik is to focus on the specialty chemicalssector,” says Engel. Such a focus allows the companyto more strongly disengage itself from the risks associatedwith fluctuating raw material prices, and fromoil in general. “Specialized expertise is becoming muchmore important, whether it’s attained through innovativetechnologies or greater access to selected industrialvalue chains,” Rings explains. This requires bettertrainedpersonnel, as Tillmann points out: “Knowledgeis the raw material we’re using to shape the future of oursociety, and countries that invest more in their innovativecapability end up doing better economically.”Knowledge, education, and research: It’s all aboutintellectual raw materials, which are especially importantfor the success of countries with few resources,such as Germany. However, this source of raw materialcould also dry up quickly. “The shortage of young engineersand natural scientists will grow over the next fewdecades,” says Rings, “so we need to take countermeasureshere as well.” The focus on specialized marketsrequires even more, however: “The important thingis to have a well-functioning infrastructure,” saysEvonik Magazine CHEMICAL INDUSTRY SPECIAL ISSUE September 2010

The largest customer is the European UnionThe Globalization of the GermanUK TheChemical Industry 7.5 Netherlands4.9With the global trade in chemicals continuing to grow and the international division of laborincreasing, German companies are at the forefront of the industry's development63.3 percent of Germany’s chemical exports go the EU-27. This correspondsto goods with a value of more than €88 billion for 2008. The most important tradingpartners are our direct neighbors: Belgium, followed by France, theNetherlands, and Italy. Germany was the world’s largest exporter for the sixth timein a row in 2008, benefiting greatly from its proximity to Eastern Europe.11.4Belgium 18.011.4FrancePoland4.8AustriaEU-27What the world needsGermany exported chemicals and pharmaceuticalswith a total value of €139 billion in2008. This included nearly €92 billion worthof goods from the chemical industry, withfine and specialty chemicals accounting for thelion’s share due to their high value-added.Important fields for the future are energyefficiency, environmental technology,alternative fuels, biotechnology, and nanotechnology.Germany enjoys a particularlygood starting position in nanotechnology.The export ratio is growingChemical products from Germany are increasinglydeveloping into a leading export. With a growth rate ofnearly ten percent per year over the last four years,exports have grown more than twice as fast as the Germanchemical industry's total sales. In 1990 less than everysecond metric ton was shipped abroad, but now exportsaccount for more than 80 percent of total production.As the world’s largest exporter of chemical products,Germany will continue to benefit in the future from thedynamism of the global chemistry markets.Sectors in comparisonA comparison with other sectors, in particular,also underscores the very important role thatforeign business plays for the chemical industry.Foreign business accounts for a share of about60 percent, making it about as important to thechemical industry as it is to the automobileand mechanical engineering industries. Manyother sectors—including the glass and ceramicsindustry, foodstuffs or metal products manufacturing—arenot nearly as globally orientedas the chemical industry and concentrate morestrongly on the German market.The chemicals Germany ships todestinations around the worldPharmaceuticals 47.5Chemicals 91.7- Basic inorganic chemicals 10.1- Petrochemicals and derivatives 21.5- Polymers (plastics) 23.5- Fine and specialty chemicals 27.6- Laundry, personal care products 9.0Total value 2008 139.2ALL FIGURES IN BILLIONS OF EUROSForeign sales and sales of various industry sectors in 20097050301000Exports make up an increasingshare of sales806040201982 1990 2000 2008ALL FIGURES IN PERCENTOther automotivemanufacturingMedical, I&C technologyRadio, television, communicationstechnologyPaperManufacturing of power generation equipmentRubber Metal productionGlass, ceramicsMetal products manufacturingFurniturePublishing, printing sectorSHARE OF FOREIGN SALES AS A PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL SALESSOURCE: VCISOURCE: VCIFood, tobacco processingThe trend toward fineand specialty chemicalsBasic chemicals are increasingly being producedwhere raw materials such as oil and gas arefound. Germany will focus more intensively onthe production of specialty products, which requirea higher level of expertise and make bettervalue-added possible. With tailored products,the German chemical industry has good opportunitiesto contribute to areas such as energy andresource efficiency. Even more important in thisregard are networks with customers, which generateprecisely targeted innovations. The futurewill not be only about new materials; systemswith high functionality will play the central role,with the synthesizing power of nature being harnessedwith increasing frequency through theuse of white biotechnology.Worldwide sales offine and specialty chemicals600500400300200414.6Worldwide sales2002 2004 2006 2008ALL FIGURES IN BILLIONS OF EUROSMechanical engineeringAutomobilemanufacturingChemical industryTotal sales in billions of euros100 200 300 350SOURCE: STATISTISCHES BUNDESAMT, IKB543.7German sales4037.43027.9202002 2004 2006 2008SOURCE: DESTATIS, VCIExports to NorthAmerica/NAFTAnations€14.3billionLatin America€8.7 billion in sales by German chemicalcompanies from local productionExports to LatinAmerica€3.5billionInvestments by thechemical-pharmaceutical industryNorth America/NAFTA nations **North American Free Trade Agreement between theUSA, Canada, and Mexico€45.7 billion in sales by German chemicalcompanies from local productionSpain4.9Exports to EU-27€88.1billionThe German chemicalindustry is going globalBetween 1999 (initial values) and 2008 (final values),German chemical exports have generated very impressivegrowth rates, in some cases of more than 100 percentForeign direct investment by the German chemical-pharmaceutical industry is an important metric for itsglobalization. In 2008 they totaled €44.4 billion. The greatest investments were made in theUSA (€10.1 billion), France (€3.6 billion), Switzerland and Belgium (€2.9/€1.9 billion). China was inseventh place, with €1.5 billion. Germany is also an attractive site for investments by foreign chemicalcompanies. The largest investor in Germany is the Netherlands (€13.9 billion), followed by the UK andFrance (€5.3/€4.5 billion).9.0ItalyEight countries account for 71.5% of Germany’sexports to the EU-27. Exports to any ofthe remaining countries are valuedat less than €2.5 billionEconomic activity abroadNAFTA 26.6%Rest ofEurope10.1%EU-2744.5%SOURCE: VCIForeigndirectinvestmentby GermanchemicalcompaniesLatinAmerica2.6%Asia14.6%Oceania0.7%Africa0.9%

€58.2 billion in sales by German chemicalc ompanies from local production8.4DE39.31.9V EL O1.1P MEU-27E NF R O M6.27.90.6FT OEX1 9 9 9 T OP ORest of Europe€7.3 billion in sales by German chemicalcompanies from local productionT SR2 0 0 8Exports to therest of Europe€14.7billionThe soft touchChemical processes can be optimized through the use of enzymesor microorganisms. Living cells such as bacteria or yeasts can beused as tiny "chemical factories.” White biotechnology is playing anincreasingly important role not only in the production of fineand specialty chemicals, but also for feed additives and agriculturaland pharmaceutical precursors. In addition, it has the potentialto replace fossil raw materials with renewables. White biotechnologyis therefore an extremely interesting field for the German chemicalindustry. Worldwide sales of white biotechnology are expected to totalapproximately €125 billion in 2010.Asia€25.9 billion in sales by German chemicalcompanies from local productionExports to Asia€15.4billionWorldwide sales of white biotechnology products403020100BiofuelsVegetable raw materialsPharmaceutical active substancesBulk chemicals, polymersFoodstuffs and feed2005 2010billions of eurosFats and oilsEnzymesOtherSOURCE: ASF, BAYER, EVONIKSOURCE: DEUTSCHE INDUSTRIEVEREINIGUNGBIOTECHNOLOGIE (DIB)China, the challengerThe most populous countries—China, Indonesia, and India—are among the fastgrowingchemical-producing countries in the world. China has shined, postingaverage growth rates of 12.8percent between 2003 and2008; for India this figureis 8.6 percent. Another indicationof the growing importanceof China is the factthat an increasing number ofcompanies, including BASF,DuPont, Rhodia, and Dow,have opened their own researchfacilities in the country.Where the leaders researchThe leaders among Germanchemical companies areincreasingly developing theirresearch and developmentcapacities abroad. Evonik, forinstance, employs a workforceof about 2,300 peoplein research and developmentat more than 35 locationsaround the world.Research locationsBASF Bayer EvonikChemical production growth rates 2003–200812.8 China1212.6 Indonesia848.6 India0 ALL FIGURES IN PERCENT2.8 Germany1.7 USA0.3 Japan3.4Worldwide averageSOURCE: FERI, VCISOURCE LARGE MAP: VCI; ILLUSTRATIONS: FLORIAN PÖHL, PICFOURAfrica€2.4 billion in sales by German chemicalcompanies from local productionExports to Africa€2.2billionRanking of the German chemical industry by salesCompany1 BASF SE*2009 sales in€ billionEmployees50.7 104,779Fields of activityWorld’s largest chemical group with a broadproduct portfolio2 Bayer AG 31.2 108,400 Pharmaceuticals, polymers, crop protection3 Henkel AG &Co.KGaA13.6 51,361Detergents and cleansers, cosmetics and personalcare, adhesives and sealants, surface finishing4 Evonik Industries AG 13.1 38,681 Specialty chemicals, energy, real estate5 Boehringer IngelheimPharmaceuticals, animal healthGmbH & Co. KG12.7 41,5346 Linde AG 11.2 47,731 Industrial gases, mechanical engineering7 Merck KGaA 7.8 33,062 Pharmaceuticals and chemicals8 Beiersdorf AG 5.7 20,346 Consumer goods, skin care9 Lanxess AG 5.1 14,338 Polymers/rubber, basic and fine chemicals10 Wacker Chemie AG 3.7 15,618 Silicones, polymers, fine chemicals11 K + S AG 4.3 15,922 Specialty and standard fertilizers, salt12 Cognis GmbH*Specialty chemicals for detergents and cleansers,2.6 5,572 cosmetics, foodstuffs*Contingent upon anti-trust approval, BASF will acquire Cognis by the end of 2010SOURCE: VCI/”DIE WELT”, JUNE 21, 2010Australia/Oceania€1.6 billion in sales by German chemicalcompanies from local productionExports toAustralia/Oceania€1.0billionGerman chemical products worldwideAlthough the Asian nations, and in particular China, are making appreciablegains, Europe and the USA are still clearly the largest sales markets forGerman chemical products. With a total of €18 billion, Belgium remains thelargest single market, however. Just how rapidly China's hunger for chemicalsis increasing can be seen in the growth that was recorded between 2004and 2008. During this short period, the value of German chemical exportsdoubled, from €1.5 billion to €3 billion, surpassing the result achieved byJapan (€2.8 billion).The world’s largestchemical nations2008 total salesin billions of eurosUSAChinaJapan187183 Germany137 France91 Brazil88 UK80 Italy68 South Korea58 The Netherlands54 IndiaTotal worldEU-273985042,535770SOURCE: FERI, VCI

20 SHAPINGThe New MantraMore and more pharmaceutical companies are restructuring in today’s globalized world.They’re no longer doing it all themselves, and outsourcing has become a strategic processTEXT CHRISTOPH PECKFABULOUS FORECASTS: Worldwide sales in thepharmaceutical industry will more than double by 2020to roughly US$1.3 trillion, according to a study that wasrecently carried out by the auditing and consulting firmPricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). And the company isnot the only one making this prognosis. Current demographicdevelopments and economic growth, particularlyin the E7 nations—China, India, Brazil, Russia, Indonesia,Mexico, and Turkey—are setting the pace ofthis change, reports PwC. But the experts say that thesepredictions come with a caveat: This boom will benefitonly those pharmaceutical manufacturers who succeedin adapting to radically changed conditions. The manufacturers'research and marketing activities must berealigned and more strongly oriented toward medicalneeds, the experts insist.Research, clinical development, and marketing and sales:These are the areas that a growing number of pharmaceuticalcompanies define as their core areas of expertise.Developing a new medication can take up to tenyears and cost up to €1 billion. And then there remains aperiod of ten years on average for patent-protected marketing.The solution to this challenge is that companiesshould no longer do everything themselves. Outsourcingis the industry’s new mantra. “Outsourcing,” saysDr. Hans-Josef Ritzert of Evonik Industries AG, “has becomea strategic process for many pharmaceutical companies.”The Head of the Exclusive Synthesis and AminoAcids Business Line isn’t worried about the pharmaceuticalindustry trend toward outsourcing the productionof intermediate products and active substances—becausethat’s exactly what he provides.Tippecanoe Laboratories in Indiana, USA. Evonik took over the entireproduction location from the US pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and CompanyAt Evonik’s Hanau facility the employees who work in exclusivesynthesis wear special protective garmentsPHOTOGRAPHY: EVONIK INDUSTRIES (3), STEFAN WILDHIRT

SHAPING 25Evonik Rexim S.A.S. Ham in France is the world leader inthe production of amino acids and keto acidsEvonik’s Nanning location in China. The Evonik research teamtrains Chinese employees like the one shown hereA pharmaceutical active substance is produced in manyreaction stages, which can be roughly divided into threesections. First the standard intermediates are produced.From these are derived the advanced intermediates, andthey in turn are synthesized into the actual active substance.And what’s exclusive about it? “Exclusive synthesissimply means made-to-order production that is commissionedby a customer,” Ritzert explains. And here hehas a few tools at his disposal, ranging from lab-scale synthesisdevelopment to commercial production in China,Europe, and the USA. “This enables us to offer our madeto-orderproduction to customers in the places whereit can be most efficiently and most effectively applied,”says Ritzert.The complete packageA further milestone in the Business Line’s developmentwas the acquisition of Tippecanoe Laboratories in Lafayette,Indiana (USA). In late 2009 Evonik took over theentire production location from the American pharmaceuticalgiant Eli Lilly and Company, thus significantlyexpanding its technological basis. The processes usedthere are based on the requirements of the GMP normsthat are required by law. The GMP is a special qualitystandard stipulated by the pharmaceutical industry andlawmakers. What’s more, the team has many years of experiencein the production of high potency drugs, whichare state-of-the-art medications that can be used in muchlower doses. The team passed the stringent audit of theUS Food and Drug Administration (FDA) once again inMarch 2010.At the end of 2010 the location will be integratedinto the Business Line’s global production and marketingnetwork, making it “far stronger,” says Dr. KlausEngel, Chairman of the Executive Board of Evonik Industries.And in China, Evonik built a new plant for activesubstances production in Nanning, Guangxi province,in only 15 months. With the German locations inHanau and Dossenheim, an additional location in China,and a facility in France for the production of pharmaceuticalamino acids, the Business Line has become firmlyestablished in the market as a leading supplier. And,Ritzert says, it has at its disposal “a network of productionlocations with a breadth that makes it very competitive,because we have the needed critical scale, a broadtechnology platform, and experienced employees. Thecustomers know that their know-how is in safe hands.The locations complement one another ideally and enableus to intelligently operate our network of assets.”Entrusting entire stages of the value chain to outsidecompanies requires a high level of reliability. Thecompanies demand a lot from their preferred suppliers.Quality, performance, flexibility, and guaranteed deliverymust all be flawless. From Ritzert’s point of view,the role of a preferred supplier goes far beyond just contractproduction. “Even though we have been concentratingmore on the advanced intermediates and activesubstances in recent years, we know the entire processand we can offer the complete range of synthesis technologies.That’s why we begin talks with our customersas early as possible in the value chain—for example, bycollaborating with them to jointly develop the synthesisprocess for the active molecule created in the lab.” Intensiveresearch into new synthesis processes is beingconducted, often together with pharmaceutical companies.And brainstorming together doesn’t stop after themarket launch. For instance, it continues when productionprocesses are optimized so that efficiency gains canbe passed on to the customers. “We support the productthroughout its whole life cycle,” Ritzert says. As a result,Exclusive Synthesis does more than deliver a product; it’sa full-service business.Evonik Magazine CHEMICAL INDUSTRY SPECIAL ISSUE September 2010

26 DEVELOPINGEVONIK: SLOVAKIASlovenská L’upcǎ is one of four Evonik locationsmanufacturing amino acidsThe amino acids threonine and tryptophaneare produced for animal feed by the BusinessUnit Health & Nutrition in Slovakia.Evonik is the only supplier in the world tomanufacture all four important amino acids.Soňa Slobodníková is one of the approximately170 employees in Slovenská L’upčaEvonik Magazine CHEMICAL INDUSTRY SPECIAL ISSUE September 2010

DEVELOPING 27Innovation remains successfactor number onePHOTOGRAPHY: STEFAN WILDHIRTRakau. A solid foundation is provided here by Germany’smore than 60 chemical manufacturing plantsand 38 chemical parks. The industry utilizes a uniquelyGerman supply system concept with links to the Europeanpipeline network. The system, which transportspetroleum, natural gas, naphtha, and basic chemicalssuch as ethylene, propylene, and hydrogen, is superiorto those currently in place at many locations in China.The problem, as Falter recently pointed out in an interviewin CHEManager, is that “there are too many chemicalfacilities in Germany with insufficient capacity utilizationand noncompetitive cost structures.” Companieswill also have to do their homework in this regard if theywish to satisfy internal and external customers withtheir facility services.Cooperating with other industriesStill, industry experts believe that innovation remainsthe number one factor for success. “If German chemicalcompanies want to be successful over the long term,they need to be at the forefront of innovative developments,”Tillmann explains. That also means they haveto make sensible use of new technologies such as green,white, and red biotechnologies, as well as nanotechnology.Many sector experts criticize what they perceiveto be an anti-innovation climate in Germany. “Speed isbecoming more and more important for the successfulmarket launch of innovations,” Rings explains. “Onlythose companies that quickly position themselves onthe market can move into newly formed markets andshape the value chains.” Engel also believes that the reservationsregarding new industrial projects pose a danger:“Industrial production and innovations are indispensableto our prosperity. The bank crisis may costus billions—but opposition to industry can cost us ourfuture.”Still, with total R&D expenditures of €8.3 billion,the chemical industry was third in the German rankingsin 2009, behind the automotive industry and the electricalengineering sector. Such investments are establishinga good foundation for the future. Innovative capabilitycould be increased even further in Germany ifdifferent industrial sectors cooperated more closely ondevelopment and market launches. For example, Germanchemical companies could work with the automotiveindustry to take on a leading role in the electric mobilitysector. The government could help out by grantingtax breaks for research into state-of-the-art technologies,rather than giving away money with cash-forclunkerprograms. This is also the view of Dr. GunterFestel, owner of Festel Capital, a Swiss investment andconsulting firm. Festel had the following to say in an articlepublished by the magazine Chemical Business: “Interms of research and development, Germany will remainthe location of choice for German chemical companiesfor quite some time.” And perhaps the leader inglobal chemical innovation as well.SUMMARY• The German chemical industry has emerged from theeconomic crisis in good shape. However, the developmentof global business remains the biggest challenge, becauseGerman companies are increasingly competing with aspiringfirms from Asia and the Middle East. German companiesare focusing on their core business areas and on specialtychemicals. Industry experts believe that the pressure to adaptindustry structures will grow.Evonik Magazine CHEMICAL INDUSTRY SPECIAL ISSUE September 2010

The Renaissance of the ChemicalA rethinking process has started in Germany. The chemical industry used to spark fierce debates, but todayGRAPHIC BY PICFOUR, WITH THANKS TO: ACTION PRESSTHE CHEMICAL INDUSTRY SEEMS to generatemore contradictory feelings and fierce debates thanany other. The number of Europeans who regard thisindustry favorably just about matches the number ofthose who watch it with critical eyes. In Germany aswell, 35 percent of the public still has negative feelingsabout the chemical industry. On the other hand,61 percent of Germans now regard the chemical industryfavorably—that’s the highest percentage in the11 European countries investigated in a recent survey.By contrast, in France, the second-largest Europeanlocation for the chemical industry, only about 36percent of the public believes the chemical industry isa good thing.Actually, the chemical industry seems to have beenstruggling with image problems ever since its birth inthe last third of the 19th century. In 1900, Dr. WilhelmBersch concluded in his book Moderne Chemie (ModernChemistry) that “only one branch of the modernnatural sciences has always been treated like a stepchild—chemistry.”He attributed this neglect, amongother reasons, to the fact that “chemistry has for centuriesbeen treated as an occult science.”Only a few years ago, the chemical industry was oftenregarded only as a source of danger that was poisoninghuman beings and the environment and was“out of control”—even though chemicals have for a longtime been an indispensable part of modern life, as wellas a reliable safeguard of German jobs and prosperity.Today, by contrast, it seems that a more balanced debateabout the risks and opportunities inherent in thechemical industry is once again possible. Its image hasimproved somewhat, especially in Germany, and eventhe Greens political party recognizes that the chemicalindustry is one of the key sectors of the German economy.In fact, the German chemical industry includesapproximately 2,000 companies, about 90 percent ofwhich are small or midsized.With more than 400,000 employees, it is one ofGermany’s largest employers and a substantial forcein the German labor market. What’s more, the chemicalindustry is well known for its highly qualified andwell-paid jobs. The German chemical industry’s leadingposition among its global competitors is clearlyreflected, among other things, in its positive exportbalance. The German chemical industry is the backboneof the European chemical industry, accountingfor about 25 percent of total sales in the EuropeanUnion. On a global scale, it’s one of the so-called bigfour. These statistics are not due to chance—they arethe result of an exemplary combination of outstandingbasic research, highly motivated employees, and intensiveefforts on the part of the industry to promote researchand innovation.Sustainable productsToday, the German chemical industry is the country’sthird-largest research-oriented industry, spendingmore than €8 billion annually on research and development.This makes it one of the pace-setting driversof innovation. Between 1999 and 2009 alone, theGerman chemical industry increased its research activitiesby 23 percent.In recent years it has not only conducted research tocreate new products and services, but also completedits entry into the field of sustainable production. Thiscan be seen in the fact that between 1990 and 2008 itboosted its production by 58 percent while at theEvonik Magazine CHEMICAL INDUSTRY SPECIAL ISSUE September 2010

DESIGNING 29Industrypeople are talking about the multitude of solutions it offers for future problems. An essay by Günter VerheugenFormer EU CommissionerGünter Verheugenpleads for an honest discussionof future perspectivesfor the chemical industry

400,000 employees in GermanyChemistryResearch expenditures up 23% between 1999 and 2009[ C 5 H 8 =2] n[ C 5 H 8 =2] n[ C 5 H 8 =2] n[ C 5 H 8 =2] n[ C 5 H 8 =2] n[ C 5 H 8 =2] n“In the past, governments and the media have dealtwith the chemical industry almost exclusively from thestandpoint of risk prevention”€8 billion spentannually onresearch anddevelopmentsame time reducing its energy consumption by 18percent and its emissions by an impressive 37 percent.Is it this transformation that explains the solid publicapproval of the chemical industry in Germany?Alternatively, it may be because we have becomemore rational and we realize that neither the dentalcare we require now and in the future, cancer medicines,nor any of the other products we need for safeguardingthe future of our societies, would be conceivablewithout the analysis of materials and theirconversion processes—in other words, without chemistry.Or the reason may be that the behavior of thechemical industry has gradually changed, from a refusalto discuss risk issues publicly toward a more deliberateacceptance of social responsibility—somethingthat cannot be dictated by law but must be shoulderedby the companies themselves.To me, in any case, it seems that there is a growingconsensus that Germany needs its chemical industryin the 21st century as it has in the past. This makes itpossible to have a more open and honest discussion ofthe opportunities and potential, but also the indubitablerisks, that are associated with this industry and tojointly develop strategies and solutions.In the past, governments and the media have dealtwith the chemical industry almost exclusively from thestandpoint of risk prevention. In the process, hardlyany attention has been paid to the fact that the chemicalindustry is primarily an enabling industry. It is increasinglybecoming a problem-solver, and with its productsit ensures that modern goods can be produced in thefirst place in all the other industrial sectors. Along theentire industrial value chain, the contribution of thechemical industry is indispensable. A country like Germany,which has a very broadly based industrial sector,would therefore be making a grave error if it didnot do everything possible to ensure that chemical facilitiesremain in the country and are able to continuetheir development.In recent years there have been two major politicalinitiatives that will have an impact on the future ofthe chemical industry not only in Germany but in theentire European Union. Both of these initiatives originatedin Europe. The first one concerns the Europeanregulation on the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisationand Restriction of Chemicals (REACH). REACHmay be the most demanding piece of legislation thatthe EU has ever passed; in any case, it’s certainly themost complex one. There’s certainly room for argumentconcerning the details, and it will definitely benecessary to correct some errors when REACH is revised,according to plan, in 2012. But the general directionin which it is heading is the right one. If REACHis responsibly implemented by everyone involved, itshould make the overall conditions for the producersand users of chemical products in Europe more stableand predictable.The second initiative concerns the high-rankinggroup appointed by the European Commission to conferabout the future of the European chemical industry.Due to the cooperation of representatives fromthe fields of politics, business, science, and civil societywithin this group, people in the EU today recognizethat the chemical sector is essential for the economiesof Europe. In a very difficult process of dialogue, therepresentatives of industry and public interest groupsmoved closer together and arrived at an astonishinglybroad consensus. The fact that in July Belgium, whichProduction up 58% between 1990 and 2008

DESIGNING 31Energy consumption down 18% between 1990 and 2008GRAPHIC BY PICFOUR, WITH THANKS TO: ACTION PRESSholds the current Presidency of the Council of the EuropeanUnion, conducted a major conference on thefuture of the European chemical industry shows thatwe are moving in the right direction.A multitude of challenges confront us at the beginningof the 21st century. They include the need to makehunger and disease in most parts of the world a thingof the past and open up reliable prospects of future developmentand prosperity for most of the world’s population;the need to protect our environment and continuethe struggle against climate change; the need toensure the safety of industrial plants and the technologicalinfrastructure; and the need to put a stop to internationalorganized crime. Only by exhausting all thepotential of modern chemistry will it be possible for usto master these challenges. It is precisely for this reasonthat chemistry, in the words of Prof. Gérard Féreyof the French Academy of Sciences, is a “science of lifeand of hope.”There’s no such thing as “zero risk”But in order to live up to this definition we have to becomemore free of ideology. It’s no use to condemn thechemical industry’s high share of energy consumption,which can reach 60 percent in the case of certainproducts. What we must focus on is to reduce energyconsumption to the minimum that is physically andtechnologically feasible. It’s also no use to condemnthe production of chlorine because of its generation oftoxic products as long as we work with chlorine in areassuch as our public swimming pools. However, whatwe must insist on is that our companies have state-ofthe-artemission purification processes so that the airwe breathe stays clean. Nor can we go on allowing ourselvesto believe in “zero risk,” which does not exist inreal life. What we need instead are strategies for clearlyassessing and evaluating risks—the same kinds of riskswe tolerate when it comes to medications.There is no technology that has only positive or onlynegative aspects. That’s why no technology should beutterly condemned from the very start—as we did for along time with biotechnology, thus almost missing ouropportunity to participate in its development. Whatare we going to do with the realization that the world’sfood supply, especially that of the poorest nations, willin all probability depend on genetic engineering? Thisbeing so, is it still morally and ethically responsible tocompletely reject it out of hand? Wouldn’t it rather beour duty to participate in the worldwide research beingdone in this field, even though it may ultimately resultin the well-founded conclusion that this technologycannot deliver the hoped-for solutions?We won’t make any progress in the cutting-edgechemistry of the 21st century if we block off areas ofresearch and promote taboos, because this segment ofchemistry is still in its infancy. Where will we find theraw materials of the future? We will find them in theearth, insofar as we have access to it. And we will certainlyfind them through recycling as well as throughnew materials, in other words alternative materials—something we’re very much pinning our hopes on. Butmany of these materials, for example nanomaterials,are still waiting to be developed. The cars of the futurewill need such new materials, and people whoplace their hopes in the electric car will also need thebattery of the future in order to be mobile. And such abattery has not yet been developed to the stage of seriesproduction.The important thing is that the German chemicalindustry does not miss this opportunity, because thisnew industrial revolution, which must bring with it thetransition to a resource-efficient economy that producesa minimum of CO 2 , will radically shake up thepresent-day structure of our industry. We don’t knowhow much of the basic chemicals sector that we knowtoday will survive. What we do know is that a technologicalleader can survive in the fast-growing marketsof today and tomorrow, and that it will reap profits notonly by safeguarding local jobs but also by exportingprogress. But in order for that to happen, the chemicalindustry needs the right governmental regulations,especially for the many small and midsized companiesthat depend on a policy that focuses on their interests.We will also have to ensure that there’s morefairness in international competition, because neitherGermany nor Europe alone will be able to bring aboutthe necessary structural transformation in the worldwidechemical industry.If we address this issue with a sense of proportion,we can demonstrate that it’s worthwhile to invest in theenvironment and in sustainable production processes—in jobs, in new eco-friendly products and services, andin the promotion of our natural environment. In orderto succeed in this endeavor, it’s essential that we continueour alliance with science, which has been the secretof our past success.In addition, in this century as well, the Germanchemical industry needs people with science degreesand enthusiasm. However, it also needs such people tobe aware of their responsibility for society as a whole,so that research and innovation do not stagnate and wecontinue on our course toward a sustainable economy.That applies to managers as well as employees. And finally,the chemical industry also needs us—a criticalgeneral public and a critical discourse—so that it continuesto be forced to present its results to the public.The International Year of Chemistry 2011, whichwas declared by the United Nations, offers us a fullrange of opportunities to achieve all that. What thismeans is that the renaissance of the chemical industryis already well under way in Germany, but the bestis yet to come.61% ofGermansapprove of thechemicalindustry(but 35% stillhave a negativeattitude)Emissionsdown 37%Evonik Magazine CHEMICAL INDUSTRY SPECIAL ISSUE September 2010

32 SHAPINGChemistry Gives Automobiles WingsNew materials and technologies are ushering in a new age of automotive design, and permanently changingPHOTOGRAPHY: MCLAREN AUTOMOTIVE

SHAPING 33the way we look at mobilityTEXT MARKUS HONSIGMCLAREN MP4-12C The super sports car looks likean earthbound flying machine. The world’s first seriesproducedcarbon fiber monocoque builds a bridge betweenthe aviation and automotive industriesEvonik Magazine CHEMICAL INDUSTRY SPECIAL ISSUE September 2010

34 SHAPINGPORSCHE 918 SPYDER Extreme hybrid with a carbon fiber monocoque,a V8 engine, two electric motors, 718 hp, and three liters/100 kmLOTUS EXIGE Weight reduction of 75 kilograms—with help from Evonik.Lower weight means better driving dynamics and lower fuel consumptionPlastic, carbon fibers,PHOTOGRAPHY: OBS/PORSCHE, STEFAN WILDHIRT, VOLKSWAGEN AG, BMW GROUPLONGSTANDING EXPERTS like Walter Röhrl knowevery kilogram counts when you want to achieve outstandinghandling and performance. That’s why Röhrlremoves everything he believes is not absolutely necessaryin the cars he works on, like the Porsche 964 RS, theAudi A2, and VW bus models. He takes out rear benches,panels and covers in the engine compartment and interior,spare wheels, and heater blowers. “It makes a differencewhether a car weighs 1,200 or 1,150 kilos,” saysRöhrl, who conducts highly specialized test drives forPorsche. Every kilo taken away increases the precisionand efficiency of braking, steering, and accelerating. Responsesto pedal and steering movements are more accurateand nimble, braking distances get shorter, andcornering speeds faster. Lighter vehicles also consumeless fuel. Röhrl not only has gifted driving hands but alsoa well trained sense of cost control and environmentalprotection. It’s therefore no surprise that this rally legendis very pleased by the trend toward lightweight automotivedesign, “even though it shouldn’t necessarilyhave required hybridization and electrification to makeit happen,” as he points out.Still, better late than never—and the time has nowcome for consistent advanced lightweight design, especiallyas CO 2 emissions are directly linked to vehicleweight: 100 kilograms more or less translates into0.3 liters higher or lower consumption per 100 kilometers.Lightweight design is also important because therearen’t many other levers left for enhancing vehicle efficiency.It comes down to aerodynamics, drive systems,and weight. Moreover, the electric cars for future mobilitynow being developed by every automaker alreadycarry a heavy load: their battery. The rule of thumb isthat every kilometer of increased range means at leastone kilo of additional weight. Lightweight design is thusbecoming a core discipline in automobile development.As a result, plastic composites will also become moreimportant, and account for a greater proportion of vehicleweight. This applies to interior equipment and outershells, induction pipes, rear windows, headlights, andhigh-tech adhesives that can replace bolts, rivets, andwelds. Evonik Industries has demonstrated the potentialinvolved here many times—in the Golf V (–371 kilograms),for example, and in the already quite lean LotusExige (–75 kilograms). In June, Evonik opened a newlightweight design studio in Darmstadt to present specificapplications for the new synthetic materials.The vehicle body is one of the most effective leversfor implementing a radical automotive diet. Althoughsteel will remain the material of choice for some time,alternatives are already on the horizon. Manufacturingprocesses for carbon fiber-reinforced plastics (abbreviatedto CFRP or CFP) appear to have advanced to a stagethat would allow production at a reasonable cost. Vehiclearchitectures are also changing, as consistent lightweightconstruction requires new designs, while small,simple, and light electric motors are giving designersmore freedom than ever before—and vice versa. Basically,what belongs together is now coming together.Material competitionThe latest example here is BMW’s Megacity Vehicle,which is scheduled for market launch in 2013. The electriccar, designed mainly for urban driving, is a model forthe future of lightweight construction. The car consistsof two clearly separate and independent modules: the“Drive Module,” which integrates the battery, drive system,structure, and crash components into a com-Evonik Magazine CHEMICAL INDUSTRY SPECIAL ISSUE September 2010

GOLF V Evonik demonstrated the lightweight design potential for plastics ina Golf V: –371 kilograms—a diet on a grand scaleand chemicals are making cars lighter than ever beforeBMW MEGACITY VEHICLE BMW is planning the world’s first mass productionvehicle to be equipped with a carbon fiber body that will fully offset the additionalweight of the electric car’s battery. The Megacity Vehicle will hit showrooms in 2013

36 SHAPINGCARBON FIBER MONOCOQUES The perfect basic cell forextreme lightweight design and use of state-of-the-art plasticsThe new era of automobile design is upon us—and we’rePHOTOGRAPHY: WOO-RAM LEE, MCLAREN AUTOMOTIVE, ARTEGA AUTOMOBIL GMBH, 2010 SMART TECHNOLOGIES ULCpact chassis unit; and the “Life-Module,” which basicallyconsists of an occupant cell made of carbon fiber (asCRP is often referred to). This simple and flexible designmay not only permanently change the automobile as weknow it but also the production processes used to makeit. The two modules can be built independently from oneanother and then joined together quickly and easily practicallyanywhere in the world. BMW enhanced its carbonfiber expertise in the fall of 2009 by establishing a jointventure with the SGL Group, one of the world’s leadingmanufacturers of carbon products. “The MCV willbe the world’s first mass production vehicle with a carbonoccupant cell,” says Dr. Klaus Draeger, BMW Boardof Management member responsible for Development.“Together with our LifeDrive architecture, the car willenable us to open a new chapter in automotive lightweightdesign, as it allows us to offset virtually all of theextra weight typical of electric vehicles. And here we’retalking about 250 to 300 kilograms”The MCV will be preceded by a completely differenttype of vehicle—the new 600-hp MP4-12C supersports car from McLaren. Along with its outstanding performance(0–200 kilometers per hour (km/h) in underten seconds; top speed of well over 300 km/h), thisvehicle stands out through a carbon fiber monocoquethat weighs less than 80 kilograms and is thus 25 percentlighter than a comparable aluminum chassis. Despitethis lean design, the monocoque offers unbeatabletorsional rigidity and stability as well as safety that can’tbe matched. What’s new here is that the McLaren monocoquesare being produced in relatively high numbers(plans call for 4,000 units per year), but at a relativelylow cost. In fact, the 12C monocoque can be built for lessthan 10 percent of what it costs to produce a hand-madePEUGEOTMOVILLE The ultramobileone-seaterof the future not onlydrives on the powerof magnets but can alsocommunicate withother vehicles

SHAPING 37ARTEGA GT The niche sports car has an aluminum chassis and a plastic body. This lightweightdesign can be implemented by both small and large-scale manufacturersSMART ELECTRIC DRIVE Small, light, and efficient, itoffers the best conditions for drive system electrificationa part of itFormula 1 cockpit. This is the first time such a vehiclewill be manufactured in a true series production process,which is set to begin next year. The monocoques will bebuilt by Carbo Tech, an Austrian company specializing inhigh-end carbon fiber components. “We’ve automatedwhat was previously a manual production process, andwe now manufacture highly integrated components,”says Carbo-Tech CEO Karl Wagner. Preparatory workon new measures for further automation has long beenunder way—and “the McLaren 12 C is the ideal interimstep here.”In principle, a monocoque offers the perfect foundationfor aggressive lightweight design—and not justfor sports cars. Because the monocoque fulfills practicallyall structural requirements, the design of the extensionsadded to it can focus solely on weight reductionand aerodynamic efficiency. With the 12C, this translatesinto aluminum for the hood and roof, and glass-fiberreinforced plastics for all other body parts. In absolutenumbers, the McLaren 12C will weigh around 1,300kilograms—much less than an Audi R8 with an aluminumspace frame body. McLaren is promising that the modelwill be the world’s most efficient sports car, with CO 2emissions well below 300 grams per kilometer.Prof. Frank Henning calls the McLaren 12C “anearthbound flying machine”—not just because of its outstandingacceleration but also because it’s something ofa missing link between the aviation industry, which hasextensive experience with the manual processing of carbonfiber-reinforced plastics, and the automotive industry,which is well-versed in the industrial processing ofsteel. The latter still has a lot to learn about new materials.Henning is deputy director of the Fraunhofer Institutefor Chemical Technology, as well as the profes-sor for Lightweight Technologies at Karlsruhe Instituteof Technology. “The key questions will be which processesmake the most sense for CFRP in series productionand what sort of stress-related dimensioning of thecomponents it will be possible to deduce as a result,”he explains. In addition, “a consistent lightweight approachmeans automobiles and their components mustbe designed with as clear a specific application in mindas possible.”Reducing weightNumerous examples illustrate what’s possible whenman-made fibers are used in an appropriate and targetedmanner in automobiles. Some are still in the prototypestage, but probably not for long. The recently presentedArtega GT is not a prototype, but instead a lightweightsports car already on the market. It has an aluminum/steel chassis, a space frame, and the first-ever body to bemade exclusively of the plastic polyurethane. The latterwas developed in cooperation with former BASF subsidiaryElastogran. Such cars can only be produced insmall batches “because tool costs are low as comparedto steel,” says Peter Müller, Chief Operating Officer ofArtega Automobil, which was founded in 2006 in Delbrück.Another development is the T.27 electric car fromGordon Murray, the former chief designer at McLaren.The vehicle weighs less than 700 kilograms (includingthe battery), and the completely new production processused to build it seeks to reinvent not only the automobilebut also the way it’s manufactured. The chassis,including all drive system and crash components, is prefabricated;the plastic body is simply put on over it. TheHeuliez Mia was originally a French development, buthas recently been taken over by the German energyEvonik Magazine CHEMICAL INDUSTRY SPECIAL ISSUE September 2010

38 SHAPINGMIA A creation of star designer Murat Günak, this electric car with abolted plastic body weighs only a little over 600 kilogramsMINDSET Another Günak creation: The vehicle’s avant-garde electric-cardesign features a plastic body and a PLEXIGLAS roofPHOTOGRAPHY: MATUS PROCHACZKA, SIPA PRESS, MINDSET HOLDING AG, TOYOTA DEUTSCHLAND GMBH, EVONIK INDUSTRIESservices provider Conenergy and pharmaceuticalentrepreneur Professor Edwin Kohl. Thanks to a plasticbody, the Mia weighs just a little over 600 kilograms.Like the Mindset electric car, whose development hasbeen temporarily halted, the Mia was designed by a starof the industry—Murat Günak, a former chief designerfor Peugeot and Volkswagen, who has now moved outsideestablished circles to bring to life his vision of thecar of the future.What such examples teach us—besides the fact thatthe future belongs to lightweight vehicles—is that whenthe use of electric motors begins reducing the importanceof highly complex mechanical engineering, andnew materials do the same with expensive steel processingtechniques, exciting new opportunities arise forsmall and flexible manufacturers. These companies canstimulate a market that is characterized by a lot of inertiathrough the introduction of new ideas, concepts, andvehicles. The prospects are without a doubt exciting inevery respect.The magic formula: Multi-material designOver the last few years, we have been told that the lawgoverning the progress of automotive development dictatedthat cars would become heavier and heavier. Onecompany, however, refused to accept this seemingly indisputablelaw, and was surprisingly left alone by thecompetition : Lotus. The latest successful example of itsapproach is the new Elise, which weighs only 876 kilograms.This low weight is due, on the one hand, to veryrestrictive equipment and, on the other, to a consistentlyimplemented lightweight design that includes an aluminum/steelchassis, carbon fiber crash boxes, and a glassfiber body. Although equipped with only a small 1.6-liter, 136-hp engine, the lean racing machine acceleratesfrom 0–100 km/h in 6.5 seconds, has a top speedof more than 200 km/h, and consumes no more than6.3 liters of fuel per 100 km under normal driving conditions.It’s hard to imagine another vehicle that deliversso much sports car performance without having to feelguilty about the environment—especially when you considerthe unbeatable enjoyment that a “lightweight” likethe Elise has to offer. It’s therefore no coincidenceEvonik Magazine CHEMICAL INDUSTRY SPECIAL ISSUE September 2010

SHAPING 39TOYOTA VENZA Multi-material design. Use of a clever material mix hasenabled Lotus Engineering to reduce the vehicle’s weight by 38 percentThe Future Will Be LightEvonik’s new lightweight design studio in DarmstadtChemical industry products willbecome increasingly importantin future automotive developmentprocesses. Evonik is presentingpractical examples of such chemicalapplications—for aviation andsolar technologies as well—at itsnew lightweight design studioin Darmstadt. “We want to be ableto demonstrate clearly to our customersand project partners whatour products can do,” says RudolfBlass, head of the Automotive &Surface Design industry segmentin the Acrylic Polymers BusinessLine at Evonik Industries. Blass isreferring here to products suchas Rohacell, Vestamid, and PLEXI-GLAS—basic materials for intelligentlightweight design. This issueis not only attracting growinginterest among automotive suppliercompanies but “also amongend customers—the automakers,where interest is being expressedby both engineering anddesign departments.” The mostfascinating products here includePLEXIGLAS glazing, which canreduce weight. “Our developmentpeople are working on customized,adapted solutions—suchas those for car side windows—that employ different material conceptsand offer different types offunctionality.”MAGNETIC VEHICLECONCEPT In the future, amagnetic drive system linked to anelectric motor will be installed ina vehicle that travels on roads alsoequipped with magnetic fields.The result will be a reduction of asmuch as 50 percent in vehicle weightIn the lightweight design studio: Rudolf Blass (left) and Gregor Hetzke, headof Performance Polymers, present the PLEXIGLAS windshield for the Lotus Exige

40 SHAPINGLOTUS ELISE The sleek sports car with a dead weight of only876 kilograms served as a model for the electric Tesla Roadsterthat Elise serves as the basis for what is currently thehottest item on the electric car market: the Tesla Roadster.Lotus’ development subsidiary, Lotus Engineering,used a Toyota Venza—an SUV currently unavailable inGermany—to perform calculations that led to the realizationthat lightweight design can be employed for vehiclesother than sports cars. The company developedscenarios for significantly reducing the weight of a largevehicle at a reasonable cost. The scenario for 2020 envisionsan impressive weight reduction of 38 percent,assuming a total weight excluding drive system componentsof 1,290 kilograms, at a cost increase of only threepercent. The body alone, currently made solely of steel,could be made 161 kilograms lighter by lowering thenumber of individual components and utilizing an intelligentmaterial mix (37 percent aluminum, 30 percentmagnesium, 21 percent composites, seven percent highstrengthsteel). This magic formula for applied lightweightconstruction is known as multi-material design.Once you lower body weight, you can, for example, alsoredimension the entire chassis area—and permanentlyreverse the trend toward heavier vehicles.SUMMARY• The future of automotive design belongs to lightweightconstruction. Lower weight means lower fuel consumptionand a longer range for electric vehicles.The importance of the chemical industry for automobileproduction is therefore continually increasing. Newtechnologies and materials are giving designers morefreedom than ever before—and also requiring themto completely rethink the principles behind automobilesand their production processes.PHOTOGRAPHY: 2010 LOTUS ELISEMajor FlirtChemistry is playing an ever-greater role inautomobiles, and the chemical and automotiveindustries are facing new challenges asa result. Is it love or a marriage of convenience?TEXT CHRISTIANE OPPERMANNTHE FUTURE belongs to lightweight electric vehiclespowered by high-performance batteries. More than onemillion of these electro-mobiles are expected to be onthe road in Germany in just a decade. These sleek machineswill be made of high-quality materials producedby the chemical industry. Instead of being driven by loudengines with four, six, eight, or 12 cylinders, they willbe powered by a battery that feeds energy to a noiselesselectric drive system. The core expertise of automakerswill then no longer be required: Fine tuning ofcombustion engines with their piston rods, camshafts,and cylinder heads will become superfluous, as will 125years of experience in the optimization of engine outputand fuel economy—not to mention the development ofcountless assembly steps that reach their pinnacle at theassembly line, where the glorified industrial-romanticmarriage between chassis, engine, and bodyshell oncetook place.The quantum leap in drive system technology willreshuffle the playing field on global markets. The automotiveindustry will be joined by a new player—oneit paid very little attention to in the past: the chemicalindustry. Even today, chemicals are a part of every vehicle,and the European automotive industry procuresfive percent of the total volume of chemicals producedin the European Union. Companies like BASF, Lanxess,and Solvay now generate more than 10 percent of theirrevenues through business with automakers. Still, the relationshipbetween the industrial partners has suffered,according to a chemical industry survey conducted in thefall of 2009 by Roland Berger Strategy Consultants in cooperationwith the European Chemical Marketing andStrategy Association (ECMSA). This estrangement becameclear during the recent economic crisis after autoindustry sales in Europe fell by 11 percent in 2009. Becauseautomakers and their suppliers began depletingtheir inventories to gain liquidity, the sales decline hada much stronger impact on manufacturers of plastics,paints, rubber, textiles, and similar products.In addition, the chemical industry’s business withthe automotive sector yielded low margins because theautomakers and original equipment manufacturers aresubject to price pressures themselves. According to theconsultants from Berger, the drop in margins was accel-Evonik Magazine CHEMICAL INDUSTRY SPECIAL ISSUE September 2010

SHAPING 41erated by new competitors from the emerging marketsof the Middle East and Asia. The new capacity in the industrythus began to exceed demand. The consultantsbelieve that more than anything else, differences in corporatestrategies put a huge strain on relations betweenautomakers, their main suppliers, and chemical companies,with the latter seeking to achieve a high level ofproduct standardization, as well as longer product cycles,in order to fully utilize their capacities. The automakers,on the other hand, plan according to their modelstrategies, and demand constant innovation and shorterproduct cycles.These conflicts persisted in the past because the partiesrefused to talk to one another—like partners in a dysfunctionalmarriage. The Berger study quoted a divisionaldirector of a European chemical manufacturer asfollows: “If we were to have direct discussions with originalequipment manufacturers, we’d run into troublewith our direct customers.” Still, new initiatives like theNational Platform for E-Mobility now require a change ofthinking on both sides, as well as a greater willingness toengage in discussion. Greatly improved economic conditionsare also facilitating a rapprochement.The true heroesThe “vale of tears” has passed and the chemical industryis back on its feet again, having increased sales by 16 percentin the first half of 2010. “Positive developments havenow reached our sector,” Dr. Ulrich Lehner, president ofthe German Chemical Industry Association, said at theorganization’s half-year press conference in July. Specialistfirms in the widely diverse chemical industry can beparticularly optimistic about the future. Such specialistsinclude manufacturers of carbon fiber-reinforced plastics(CFRPs), which are already used in aircraft production.These companies are very much in demand amongautomakers as business and discussion partners. Daimler,for example, is now cooperating with the world’sleading carbon fiber producer, Japan’s Toray Industries.Carbon fiber plastics are up to 50 percent lighter thansteel and aluminum and are extremely impact resistant.They are also expensive, however, as a kilo of carboncosts around €15, while the same amount of steel costsonly one euro or so. Mass automobile producers continueto rely on high-strength steel, and even Audi plansto stick with aluminum for the time being. Still, it makesgood business sense for the automobile manufacturersand their suppliers to maintain direct contact with chemicalcompanies. That’s because even with conventionaldesigns, savings potential can be exploited through theuse of modern materials, like PLEXIGLAS for glazing,mirrors, and interior trim, as well as new-generation adhesiveslike Evonik’s Dynacoll/Dynapol, whose bondsare just as stable as the welds or rivets that have beenused to date. Hard foams like ROHACELL are lighter thansteel or aluminum, but can withstand the same stresses,if not more. However, the true heroes in the most importantmobility segment of the future will be manufacturersof powerful energy storage units—the hearts of thenew electric vehicles. The capacity and volume of theseunits will determine how far customers can travel withtheir electric cars. There are now around half-a-dozenof these specialists around the world with the capabilityof building batteries that meet the tough requirementsof putting an extremely high storage capacity into a relativelysmall space, and delivering not only a long servicelife of more than a decade but also reliable stabilityin the event of a crash. It’s not only the weight of the batteriesthat make them the biggest hurdle when it comesto electric-car production but also their price. After all,the battery for a small urban electric vehicle will likelycost around €10,000 just by itself.The Evonik subsidiary Li-Tec Battery GmbH is oneof the companies on the cutting edge of developmentshere. Li-Tec is the only German manufacturer of suchbatteries in a high-tech market otherwise consisting ofa half-dozen Korean and Japanese firms. Li-Tec has alsobeen working with a high-profile partner for the last twoyears: Daimler AG, whose CEO, Dieter Zetsche, explainsthe reason for the partnership as follows: “We are convincedthat Li-Tec is the leading supplier of lithium-iontechnology.” In line with this assessment, Daimler has acquireda 49.9 percent stake in the company. That numberspeaks for an equal partnership—and the Daimler-Evonikdeal could mark the dawn of a new era for the chemicalindustry. As a major supplier of key components, Li-Tecwill now also help shape the development of e-mobility.The two partners still have to get used to their new roles,which require that they learn to plan and talk with oneanother. Indeed, those who try to do too much too soonrisk a “war of the roses.”Scenes from a marriageOnly close partnerships ensure success on the automotive marketIncrease incooperation0. Focus ondirect buyersToday6–12 months12–24 months> 24 monthsI. ManufacturerintegrationII. StrategyfocusIII. BusinesscasedrivenIV. Commonvalue chainThe current strategy among automakers in the USA, Japan, China, and Europe is tobuild vehicles tailored to customer requirements. However, the Japanese andEuropeans will have an edge when it comes to the establishment of a common valuechain for manufacturers and suppliers in the futureSOURCE: „FUSING THE VALUE CHAINS“ BYROLAND BERGER STRATEGY CONSULTANTS

42 EXPERIENCINGThe Battle of the BackyardMany Germans immediately get up in arms whenever an industrial project is being planned—even ifthe plans call for a biogas facility or wind turbine. A report on an intensifying conflictTEXT KLAUS JOPP PHOTOGRAPHY CATRIN MORITZTHINGS HAVE QUIETED DOWN in Schlenke, a formerresidential community that slumbers silently in themorning sun. Back in the 1950s, 146 rental apartmentsand 29 family homes were built here in close proximityto the shaft of the Brassert Mine in western Marl, betweenhuge waste heaps and the Marl Chemistry Park.The Schlenke community was originally built as a temporarysolution for housing the coal miners of the Brassertneighborhood, and it was no longer needed after themine was closed in the early 1970s. But none of the residentswanted to move away—not even ten years ago,when the first discussions were held about expanding theMarl Chemistry Park to the west into areas that had longbeen earmarked for this purpose. The Schlenke communitystood in the way of the industrial park’s expansion,but Germany’s laws were continually amended untilthe emissions standards and the regulations for the protectionof residential property had become so strict thatcompanies were even prevented from building some productionfacilities on their own premises. The dispute withthe Schlenke residents lasted about ten years, until theMarl city council finally changed the regional utilizationplan in March 2010. After years of wrangling, the area isnow again available for industrial use, as was originallyplanned, and the empty houses are scheduled to be torndown for the industrial park by the end of this year.The former inhabitants have found new homes in theGartenstadt neighborhood of Marl’s Drewer-Süd district.“We compensated the inhabitants for changes they hadmade to their homes and paid for the move. The plots ofland were provided by a predecessor firm of Evonik ImmobilienGmbH,” says Uta Heinrich, a lawyer and formermayor of Marl who played a key role in ensuring that thewestward expansion of the industrial park is now withinreach. Volkhard Czwielong, who has been working at InfracorGmbH for about ten years, also strove tirelessly tomake the expansion possible. A subsidiary of Evonik IndustriesAG, Infracor is a key element of the new Site ServicesOrganization, which combines Evonik’s chemicalsrelatedservices.A special combinationCzwielong heads the site development and geodata managementunits at Infracor, which operates the chemistrypark. The industrial park is located at the northern edgeof the Ruhr region, next to the Lippe River. Its area of6.5 hectares makes it one of the largest integrated facilitiesin Germany, encompassing more than 900 buildings,100 production facilities, and 55 kilometers of roads.Thirty companies use the Marl Chemistry Park’s infrastructureand services, which can be summed up in impressivefigures: Besides the roads, the industrial park has100 kilometers of tracks, a harbor at the Wesel-DattelnCanal, 1,200 kilometers of pipelines, 30 kilometers ofpipe bridges, 70 kilometers of canals, three power plants,and two sewage treatment plants. Such locations are ingreat demand in the chemical and pharmaceutical industriesbecause the combination of facilities, companies,and employee experience and expertise creates manyadvantages in areas such as energy efficiency and productsupply. “We still have unoccupied plots of land onour premises, but the largest property available for constructioncovers only 20,000 square meters. Potentiallyworld-scale facilities need between 50,000 and 100,000square meters,” explains Czwielong.Uta Heinrich has also given the industrial park’s expansionher unequivocal support, even though she facedan uphill battle. “My party pushed through a cityEvonik Magazine CHEMICAL INDUSTRY SPECIAL ISSUE September 2010

EXPERIENCING 43Uta Heinrich, a formermayor of Marl, andVolkhard Czwielongfrom Infracor GmbHsupport the expansion ofthe Marl Chemistry Park

44 EXPERIENCINGThe construction of the world’s largest coal-fired monoblocburner for the E.ON power plant in Datteln is very controversialA building permit has been issued for the planned highwaybridge across the Moselle (montage), but criticism continuesPHOTOGRAPHY: PICTURE ALLIANCE/DPA (2)council resolution requiring all of Schlenke’s residentsto agree to a move before they could be relocated.My fellow city council members from the Christian DemocraticParty passed this resolution in the knowledge thatit would be impossible to reach an amicable settlementwith about 20 percent of the inhabitants.” But after Heinrichwas reelected as an independent in local electionsin 2004, the Marl city council passed a positive resolutionallowing the westward expansion to be started in2005. The Christian Democrats on the city council votedagainst the expansion, while the Social Democrats, theFree Democrats, and the Marl Citizen’s Union were in favorof it. The mayor then tipped the scales with her vote,which pitted her against her former fellow party members.“If you’re talking to potential investors at the industrialpark and they ask what the residential community isdoing over there, you can’t just tell them that we’ll decidethe matter in three to five years. If you do that, chemicalcompanies will just go elsewhere,” says Heinrich.Protests, objections, and lawsuitsIn late 2008 the Higher Administrative Court in Münsterremoved the last obstacles to the expansion by rejectingthe suit of the Schlenke community’s last inhabitant andstating that its decision could not be appealed. The judgesruled that the city of Marl had a legitimate interest in safeguardingmanufacturing jobs and that it could thereforerelocate the inhabitants of Schlenke, by force if necessary.The court also stated that the community was not builtso that its inhabitants could live in pristine natural surroundings—itwas built to house mine workers, but it wasno longer needed for that purpose. Despite her success,Uta Heinrich was not reelected in the next local election.“The media agitated against me endlessly. Luckily my jobas a lawyer makes me independent, or I could have neverput up with so much hostility,” she says.These days industrial and infrastructure projects arealways accompanied by protests, objections, and protractedlegal disputes. “Although industrial productionand innovations are indispensable to our prosperity, weindulge ourselves in the luxury of letting lose a hail ofobjections and complaints against almost every new industrialand infrastructure project,” says Dr. Klaus Engel,CEO of Evonik. Michael Vassiliadis, Chairman of theMining, Chemical and Energy Industrial Union (IG BCE),also warns against the growing hostility toward industrialprojects. “We’re facing a new situation in which peopleno longer debate matters objectively, but instead resistprojects with an almost religious fervor,” says Vassiliadis,who calls on lawmakers to restrict the participationrights of professional objectors.Throughout Germany, resistance is particularly intenseagainst construction of new coal-fired powerplants. The environmental organization Friends of theEarth Germany (BUND) is therefore delighted that 11 of31 proposed plants have already been successfully scuttled.One of the most controversial projects is Block 4of the E.ON power plant in Datteln, just a few kilometersfrom the Marl Chemistry Park. Construction of theworld’s largest coal-fired monobloc burner with a netoutput of 1,055 megawatts began in 2007. The facilitywould consume 20 percent less fuel than the previousgeneration of power plants. Over €1.2 billion is to beinvested in the facility. In exchange for building the bignew power plant, E.ON plans to shut down older facilitiesin Datteln (Blocks 1 to 3) and in other parts of theRuhr region. In September 2009 the Higher AdministrativeCourt in Münster ruled that the building permitfor the power plant was invalid even though work on itwas by then well advanced. The court ruled that the cityof Datteln should have chosen a different location for thepower plant. In June 2010 the regional government rejecteda petition by BUND to have the construction workstopped completely. E.ON can therefore continue to buildthe boiler house and the turbine hall, but not external facilitiessuch as the coal and ammonia storage buildings.Cases similar to the one in Datteln can be foundthroughout Germany. As a result, the German Associationfor the Energy and Water Industries (BDEW) recentlywarned that increased use of renewable energysources could suffer setbacks, although they are beingadvocated as alternatives to coal- and gas-fired powerplants. “Without new grids, there won’t be any growthin the use of renewable energy sources,” says HildegardMüller, Chair of the BDEW Executive Board. In astudy published in 2005, the German Energy Agency(Dena) stated that 850 kilometers of extra high-voltagepower lines would be needed to transmit wind energyEvonik Magazine CHEMICAL INDUSTRY SPECIAL ISSUE September 2010

EXPERIENCING 45The “not in my backyard” principlefrom the coast along the North and Baltic Seas to the centersof energy consumption. Only 90 kilometers of thesepower lines have been completed to date. What’s more,the Dena study assumed that renewable energy sourceswould account for 20 percent of electricity productionin 2020, but the government has now increased this targetto 30 percent. “Everyone’s in favor of electricity fromrenewable sources, but they want it only if the requiredelectricity pylons aren’t visible from their living roomwindows,” says Müller. The BDEW is therefore callingfor a campaign to increase people’s acceptance of infrastructuremeasures by pointing out the link with renewableenergy sources.The bridge and the Moselle winesTransportation projects also spark lengthy conflicts. Forexample, 40 years ago the authorities began to considermeasures for linking Belgium’s major population centerswith the Rhine-Main region. They concluded thereshould be a crossing of the Moselle River near the villageof Ürzig. After several lawsuits had been resolved, an unrestrictedbuilding permit was issued in late July 2008 forconstruction of the highway bridge across the Moselle.But the dispute is still far from over. Two renowned authorsof books on wine, Stuart Pigott and Hugh Johnson,recently joined the fray, claiming the bridge would endangerthe Moselle wines. This was too much for HajoWeinmann, spokesman of the Social Democratic factionin the Traben-Trarbach town council. “For years the towncouncilors of the communities along the Moselle havebeen discussing ways to improve the infrastructure andtraffic flow,” he says. “Today, heavy-duty trucks still haveto wind their way through the narrow streets of the region’stowns and villages. Our would-be rescuers shouldrealize that. We don’t expect the bridge to have any negativeeffects on winegrowing.” The region’s premier, KurtBeck, also rebuked the critics. “People act as though wewant to roof over the entire Moselle River,” he quipped.No other Western nation is as hostile to new technologyas Germany, claims the U.S. magazine Newsweek. “Germanyneeds a party that is for progress,” writes MichaelMiersch in the magazine. The Social Democrats weresuch a progress-oriented party back in the early 1960s,when they campaigned with the slogan “A Blue Sky abovethe Ruhr.” And the skies did become blue, thanks to progressresulting from innovation and technology. In his article,Miersch also claims that “many engineers, scientists,and technicians don’t feel at home in their own country,even though they are largely responsible for Germany’sprosperity.“ That’s why Czwielong and his team want topromote the Chemistry Park and safeguard jobs. Twoyears ago, experts mapped the locations of nesting birdsand bats. “We’re creating alternative habitats for the bats,and we’ll let two buildings remain standing for use bythe common house martin,” says Czwielong. The otherhouses of the community will be torn down. Czwielongis convinced he’ll be vindicated once the first potentialinvestors examine the area. Together with Uta Heinrichand many others, he has played a key role in promotinga development that will benefit the Marl Chemistry Parkas well as Germany as a business location.SUMMARY• Community action groups and nongovernmental organizations(NGOs) are increasingly hindering infrastructure andpower plant projects in Germany. The opponents of suchprojects have also staged protests against coal-fired powerplants in Datteln and, most recently, in Walsum. Evenbiogas facilities, wind turbines, and solar energy plants arebeing blocked nowadays. Another example is providedby the western expansion of the Marl Chemistry Park, whichhas now finally been approved after a ten-year dispute.The Schlenke community is now uninhabited. Mine workers used to live here

46 RECOGNIZINGCatching Rays with ChemistryWhether it’s solar cells or energy storage systems, thermal insulation or LED light sources,energy efficiency technologies have one thing in common: They are based on discoveries in chemistryTEXT KLAUS JOPP

RECOGNIZING 47The right stuff for capturing solarenergy: The chemical element silicon(Si), which can be found in everygrain of sand, plays a dominant role inphotovoltaics, whether as metallicraw silicon (above Einstein), as apolycrystalline material for installationin solar cells (to the left of Einstein)or as a finished solar cell (blue).Einstein is considered a pioneer in theproduction of electricity from thesun; he provided the theory behindthe photovoltaic effectGRAPHIC BY PICFOUR, WITH THANKS TO: NASA, EVONIK INDUSTRIES,THOMAS KOEHLER/PHOTOTHEK.NET, DOCK.STOCK, AKG IMAGES; ILLUSTRATIONS: DIETER DUNEKACHEMISTRY IS THE KEY to energy efficiency andthus to protecting the climate. Just last year, the InternationalCouncil of Chemical Associations, ICCA, presenteda study showing that the greenhouse gas emissions savedby chemical products are double the amount of such gasesthat are emitted during their production. In 2005, chemicalsproduction generated a total of 3.3 billion metric tonsof greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. On the other sideof the ledger, 8.5 billion metric tons were saved throughchemical products. The energy efficiency of the industry’sprocesses is exemplary. From 1990 to 2007, the chemicalindustry in Europe reduced its greenhouse gas emissionsby nearly 34 percent, although production was increasedby more than 70 percent. The German chemicalindustry, the revenue leader in Europe, reduced its emissionsby 37 percent by 2008, making it the internationalposter child in this area.However, the energy-intensive chemical industry cannotafford to rest on its laurels. It still accounts for nearlyten percent of the net electricity consumption in Germany.On the other hand, the know-how gleaned from the productsis important for new, energy-saving solutions. Boostingenergy efficiency ensures global competitiveness. Itwas against this backdrop that Evonik Industries AG establisheda center for energy efficiency, the Eco² Science-to-Business Center, in Marl in 2008. The industrial group isinvesting over €50 million in more than 20 research projectsby 2013. Solar energy and energy storage, in particular,benefit from advancements in chemistry.On the following pages, you will see how the firstgroundbreaking discoveries in chemistry have led to thebroad range of green technologies we have at our disposaltoday, ranging from the production of renewable energiesto their storage.Evonik Magazine CHEMICAL INDUSTRY SPECIAL ISSUE September 2010

48 RECOGNIZINGBrowse our compact lexicon of the energy efficiency ofPhysicists have been working onsolar electricity for a long timeSilicon is the stuff of which solar cells are madePHOTOGRAPHY: BELL LABSEinstein’s energy[Photovoltaics] Basic knowledgeabout photovoltaics, the directconversion of sunlight into electricity,goes a long way back. TheFrench physicist Prof. AlexandreEdmond Becquerel discovered therelationship between light andelectricity back in 1839—withoutbeing able to explain the phenomenon.Another researcher whomade valuable contributions tothis endeavor in the early 20thcentury was the German physicistProf. Wilhelm Ludwig Franz Hallwachs,who laid the cornerstonefor the development of the photocell,photoelectricity, and thelight-quantum hypothesis. Shortlythereafter, in 1905, Prof. AlbertEinstein established a key foundationfor the advancement of photovoltaicswhen he formulated hislight-quantum hypothesis and thusprovided a theoretical explanationfor the photovoltaic effect. For thisachievement he was awarded theNobel Prize for physics in 1921. In1954, Bell Laboratories in NewJersey (USA) produced the firstsolar cell based on the semiconductingmaterial silicon.PHOTOGRAPHY: EVONIK INDUSTRIESAn incredibly clean affair[Solar silicon] Solar cells are made fromvarious semiconducting materials that are producedin high-purity form by the chemicalindustry. More than 90 percent of the solarcells produced around the world are madeof silicon (chemical symbol Si).In principle the silvery gray metalloidis nothing special—it’s as common as sand onthe beach. Silicon is the second most abundantelement in the Earth’s crust. Nonetheless,a few years ago there was a significant shortageof silicon, because the production ofthis material in high purity (99.999 percent) isvery complex and requires the appropriatechemical processes.The German chemical industry is involvedin the production of silicon in a variety ofways. Wacker Chemie AG, which is based inMunich, is the world’s second-largestproducer of high-purity silicon for the solar industry.The company primarily uses ribbongrowingprocesses as well as the directionalsolidification of multicrystalline silicon.The polysilicon used for these processes mustbe extremely pure if high wafer pullingyields and perfect crystals are to be achieved.These in turn are required for the productionof solar cells with high levels of efficiency.Evonik Industries AG has developed analternative production process. Hydrogen chlorideis made to react with the raw silicon in orderto transform the silicon into trichlorsilane,which in a further step is purified by meansof distillation and subsequently converted intomonosilane (SiH 4) and purified once again.The colorless gas is then thermally decomposedin a reactor, leaving behind silicon that has therequired purity.The great advantage of this process is that itsaves up to 90 percent of the energy that isrequired for the conventional production process.According to the German Solar IndustryAssociation, Germany has a total productioncapacity of 27,500 metric tons of solar siliconper year.But plastics also play an important rolewhen it comes to capturing the sun’s energy.First, the plastic material is used to cover solarbricks with solar cells, and also to focus thesunlight by means of Fresnel lenses, which canbe manufactured from plastic using a varietyof methods such as injection molding or extrusion.Evonik has developed special PLEXI-GLAS- brand molding compounds for use inthese applications.At the Group there is also a focus onspecialty polymers that are used to create solarcells which are particularly lightweight andflexible. Electrically conductive plastics areused for these organic photovoltaics. Anotherapproach to generating electricity fromsunlight involves the use of synthetic dyes.

RECOGNIZING 49solar energySharp Corporation, theworld’s largestmanufacturer of solarcells, brought thelargest thin-layer cellfactory on line this yearin Sakai, outside ofOsaka (Japan). Sharpplans a productionvolume of 1,000megawatts per yearThe subtle difference—but how great is its effect?PHOTOGRAPHY: SHARP, ILLUSTRATION: PICFOUR[Thin and thick-layer cells] Conventionalcrystalline silicon solar cells are thick-layer cellsthat are manufactured from discs which areless than one millimeter thick, called wafers.The wafers are cut from either a single crystal(monocrystalline) or a block of crystals(polycrystalline). The cells consist of a p-layerthat is approximately 0.6 millimeter thickand an n-layer that is only 0.001 millimeterthick. The two layers are doped with differentimpurity atoms (phosphorus and boron). It isthis doping process that makes the conversionof sunlight into electricity possible. Theefficiency of industrial-scale crystalline cellsis between 16 and 20 percent.With material thicknesses of only a fewmicrometers (thousandths of a millimeter),thin-layer cells are significantly thinner thanconventional solar cells. There are siliconbasedsolutions for thin-layer cells (amorphousand micromorph cells) as well, but thereare also solutions based on a variety of othersemiconducting materials.Organic solar cells and dye-sensitized solarcells (which are called Grätzel cells after theirinventor) also belong in this category (see nextpage). Amorphous cells still hold the largestmarket share among the thin-layer cells today.They are significantly less expensive, but theirefficiencies are only between five and sevenpercent.The micromorph thin-layer cell has a tandemstructure consisting of an amorphous and a microcrystallinesilicon layer. This configurationmakes optimal use of the sun’s light spectrumbecause both of the silicon layers convert theentire spectrum of light, from violet to thenear-infrared range, into electricity. This givesthe tandem cell a potential efficiency of tenpercent or more, which is roughly in the samerange as the efficiencies of the alternativeThrough thick and thinsemiconducting materials. Efficiency valuesas high as 20 percent have been achieved in thelaboratory.Some of these semiconductors are at adisadvantage in the long run because they arerare and in very high demand, besides beingdifficult to recycle. This is why the hopes forlightweight, flexible, and mobile solutions tendto rest on organic solar cells that are based onplastics and dyes.Thin-layer cells are increasingly being used concurrently with the familiar thick-layer cells.In contrast to the conventional wafer solar cell, the light falls onto the surface structureof a thin-layer cell at an angle and strikes an optically reflective reverse side, which multipliesthe light path of the cell several times. A 30-micrometer thin-layer cell provides nearlythe same photovoltaic effect as a 300-micrometer thick wafer cell.The graphic shows a thin-layer cell on the left compared witha thick-layer cell on the rightEvonik Magazine CHEMICAL INDUSTRY SPECIAL ISSUE September 2010

50 RECOGNIZINGThe pioneer Michael Grätzel captures the energy of theProf. Michael Grätzel, winner of the“2010 Millennium Technology Prize”Research is focusing on the organic solar cellThe Grätzel cellTurning plastic into electricityPHOTOGRAPHY: ACTION PRESS[Dye layer] Prof. Michael Grätzel,a physicist at the Swiss Federal Instituteof Technology in Lausanne(Switzerland), has developed anew concept that was inspired bythe photosynthesis of green plantsback in the early 1990s. Instead ofusing the chlorophyll of plants, theGrätzel cell captures solar energyby means of a layer of syntheticdye. What makes this cell so interestingis that it becomes more efficientas the light becomes weakerand more diffuse; that’s a particularadvantage for regions that donot receive very much sunshine.The quality of the nanocrystallinelayers in which the dye is absorbedis a prerequisite for high efficiency.These layers enlarge the active surfacethat is available for the photoelectricprocess by a factor of1,000. A number of research institutionsare now conducting researchinto alternatives to the syntheticdye in order to make the cellseven more efficient. Grätzelhimself, the winner of this year’sMillennium Technology Prize,believes that efficiencies in excessof 30 percent are possible.PHOTOGRAPHY: FRAUNHOFER ISE, GRAPHIC: PICFOUR[Organic solar cells] Organic solar cells aremade of materials from organic chemistry,in particular plastics. New developments havenow given rise to electrically conductive andsuperconducting polymers. In the lab, light isconverted to electricity with an efficiencyof approximately 12 percent. The particular advantagesof organic solar cells lie in other areas,however, including a tremendous potential toThe layer principleIncident lightSubstrate: Glass, filmBack electrode (transparent)Transport layerAbsorber: Polymer-fullereneMetal contactOrganic solar cellsare effective onlyif the electronscan move withease from thepolymer to thefullerenes andtraverse thedistance to theelectrode quicklyElectricalconductorFullerene accepter

RECOGNIZING 51sun with a layer of dyeThe world’s largest and first solar charging station is in BerlinThe four electric motors of thePeugeot Pure are in the tiresSolar storage on a grand scaleAir instead of leadPHOTOGRAPHY: YOUNICOS, ILLUSTRATION: EVONIK INDUSTRIES[Storage technology] Closely associated withthe increased use of photovoltaics—and renewableenergies in general—is the developmentof the storage technology. Particularlyat night and under very cloudy skies, the yieldsfrom photovoltaic systems are in effect zero,and high-performance storage systems mustbe available to bridge these downtimes.Chemistry is also laying the groundwork here.Leading the efforts in Germany towardthe development and production of large,rechargeable lithium-ion batteries is Li-TecBattery GmbH, a joint venture betweenEvonik Industries AG and Daimler AG that isbased in Kamenz, Germany. Smaller versionsof such systems are already used in cameras,cellular phones, and laptop computers.However, their energy density must increaseto 150 watt-hours per kilogram beforethey can be suitable for use in electric vehiclesand industrial applications.Nor is existing battery technology reliableor safe enough for the power required oflarge-volume systems. Components fromEvonik, in particular an innovative ceramicmembrane, compensate for this disadvantage.The heat-resistant separator serves as a partitionbetween the electrochemical reactions,and because it does not melt until it reaches600 °C (Celsius), the risk of a short-circuit isalmost completely eliminated.The global race for the car battery of the futureis in full swing. In the long run, this will alsobenefit stationary systems that could be used inmany locations as storage stations for wind andsolar power. With the support of the GermanFederal Ministry of Research, Evonik andLi-Tec have already packed 4,700 cells into ademonstrator called LESSY (lithium-ionelectricity storage system), which is scheduledto begin testing in 2011. LESSY’s storagesystem has a power of one megawatt.Large lithium-ion batteries willstore solar and wind power and makeit available to the electrical grid.Evonik is developing a giantrechargeable battery called LESSY(lithium-ion electricity storagesystem), which will be roughly thesize of a shipping container.A LESSY is fitted with 4,700 cellsand has a capacityof 700 kilowatt-hoursPHOTOGRAPHY: PEUGEOT DEUTSCHLAND[Lithium systems] Already underdevelopment today are innovativelithium systems in which the oxygenin the air is supposed to serveas a reaction partner for the lithium.Designs of this type are expected toachieve an energy density of atleast 200 watt-hours per kilogram,and their weight would be justone fifth that of conventional leadbatteries.The ultimate outcome of thisdevelopment could be the superbattery, a particularly cleverlithium technology that uses the airas a cathode. Researchers aredreaming of such systems, whichcould boast an energy density of1,500 watt-hours per kilogram inapproximately ten years.With a system of this kind, anelectrically powered vehicle wouldrequire a battery pack weighing aslittle as 120 kilograms in order toenjoy a mobility range of 1,000 kilometers.A major contributoralong the road to this goal has beenthe new MEET (Münster ElectrochemicalEnergy Technology)battery research center at theUniversity of Münster.Evonik Magazine CHEMICAL INDUSTRY SPECIAL ISSUE September 2010

52 ACHIEVINGMarie Curie receivedher first Nobel Prizefor physics in 1903together with herhusband (left). In 1911she was the first womanto receive the NobelPrize for chemistry(right)The Women after CurieA hundred years ago, it caused a sensation when a woman, Prof. MarieCurie, received the Nobel Prize for chemistry. Today many womenare studying chemistry, but only a few go on to occupy top positionsTEXT DR. BRIGITTE RÖTHLEINPHOTOGRAPHY: AKG IMAGES, PICTURE ALLIANCE/DPA, MARKUS PIETREK, ROGER VIOLLET/GETTY IMAGESTHE RUSSIAN RAILWAY COMPANY was facedwith a problem: Its workers regularly got frostbite ontheir faces when they were sent to build railroad linesin Siberia. Hands and bodies can be protected from thefreezing cold with warm clothes and gloves, but notthe entire face. That’s why the railroad officials turnedto the Skin Care product line in the Care SpecialtiesBusiness Line of Evonik Industries AG in Krefeld toask whether its specialist for “working skin” also had acream that protects against the cold. The requirementswere that the cream should be easy to squeeze from thetube at below-zero temperatures, be easy to spread,and leave no greasy marks on workpieces, as siliconebasedcreams do.Dr. Petra Allef, Head of Research, Development,and Application Technology at Skin Care, took on thechallenge and developed, together with her team, thesilicone-free cream STOKO frost protect, which standsup to the Siberian cold thanks to a special anti-freezingproperty. Today the cream is used outside Russia aswell, protecting workers in German refrigerated warehousesand researchers on the Arctic Ocean, for example.The product recently received the Innovation Prizeof the British Occupational Hygiene Society.Petra Allef and her research department have manydifferent kinds of problems to solve. For example, workersin the metal processing industry have to protecttheir hands from aggressive cooling lubricants, weldersand road construction crews need face creams thatoffer very good protection from ultraviolet light (UV-A, B, and C), and people in the cleaning and care professionsdepend on especially effective hand creams.The 15 researchers in the team keep finding unusualsolutions, for example a new type of skin cleanser foruse against heavy soiling from materials such as greaseand oils—completely without abrasives.“Even as a child, I always wanted to be a chemist,”says Dr. Allef, who is now 39. When she decided at age12 that this was the only profession for her, people onlysmiled. And when she expressed this wish as a 10thgraderat a job counseling session at the local labor exchange,she was advised to become a teacher instead,as “that’s something more suitable for women.” Dr.Bettina Lotsch, a 32-year-old professor of chemistryat Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, didn’t havethese kinds of problems early on, but she did find that atthe university level there’s a serious break. “The numberof men and women receiving doctorates is roughlyequal, but there’s a dramatic difference when you getto the postdoctoral stage,” she says.Petra Allef didn’t get discouraged and pursued herambition, even though the road was sometimes rocky.“I got my doctorate in natural product chemistry/stereoselectivesynthesis, because I would have liked to workin the field of pharmacology,” she says. “However, inspite of many job interviews, I didn’t get that kind of position.The jobs always went to men with professionalexperience.” She finally accepted an offer from Procter& Gamble and worked on optimizing aftershave andtoothpaste for the Gillette brand. “I enjoyed that a lot,because in this field you get results quickly and thenyou can hold in your hand a product you’ve developedyourself,” she says.Strictly for men?Allef’s switch to Evonik was the result of a coincidence.She was sitting in an airplane reading a magazinewhen she noticed a job ad from Evonik Gold-Evonik Magazine CHEMICAL INDUSTRY SPECIAL ISSUE September 2010

Dr. Petra Allef, 39, Head ofResearch, Development,and Application Technology atEvonik’s Skin Care productline in Krefeld, learned early onto go her own way andnot let others divert her

54 ACHIEVINGschmidt GmbH. Without hesitating, she sent in ajob application and immediately received a positionas head of the synthesis group for cosmetic base materials.Five years ago she was promoted to the positionof Head of Innovation Management at Skin Care. “AfterI became a manager, I never again had problems assertingmyself professionally as a woman against themen,” she says.Less than a hundred years ago, such a situationwould have been unthinkable. In 1911, when the famouschemist Marie Curie dared to apply for membershipin the French Academy of Sciences, she caused aquite a stir. She had already been doing research withextraordinary success, and in 1903 she had receivedher first Nobel Prize for physics, together with herhusband. When her candidature for the Academy wasannounced in the newspaper Le Figaro on November16, 1910, the Paris newspapers discussed whether awoman was even entitled to a membership. There wasa range of opinions, from disapproving conservatives tosupporters of women’s rights who would have loved tosee a woman in the Academy’s sacred halls. Paparazzieven tried to chase her down in order to get photos ofthe elegant 43-year-old woman scientist.The chemist Silvia Marten,39, a department headat the Knauer company inBerlin, is benefitingfrom a child-friendly bossWomen not admitted!On Monday, January 24, 1911, the Academy of Sciencestook a vote. A large crowd of spectators had arrived,but only the men were admitted. A total of 58members were present, so the absolute majority was 30votes. The new member who was eventually accepted,with just a few votes more than Curie, was the physicistProf. Édouard Branly, who subsequently faded intoobscurity. Although Curie did not show her disappoint-

ACHIEVING 55Men communicate differentlyDr. Andrea Schütze,44, a team leaderat Shell Hamburg whois responsible forlubricants research,has learned not toconceal heraccomplishmentsPHOTOGRAPHY: NORA BIBEL, POPPERFOTO/GETTY IMAGES, ULRIKE SCHACHT, ULLSTEIN BILD/ROGER VIOLLETment in public, she never made another attempt to becomea member of the Academy of Sciences. It took 68years for the elitist club to accept its first female member,the mathematician Prof. Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat.The Nobel Prize committee was more courageous: In1911 Marie Curie received her second Nobel Prize,this time for chemistry. In the following years womendid not make great progress in chemistry: In 1935 Curie’sdaughter Irène received the Nobel Prize togetherwith her husband, followed only in 1964 by the Britishchemist Prof. Dorothy Hodgkin. It remains to be seenwhether a new trend has been signaled by the awardingof the Nobel Prize last year to the Israeli Prof. Ada Yonath.Although it’s true that in the 20th century therewas a change of attitude toward women, one looks invain for outstanding female role models in the field ofchemistry during this period. Important women researchershave remained in the background, such asthe British chemist Prof. Rosalind Franklin, who laid thegroundwork in 1953 for the discovery of the structureof deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), but never receivedthe Nobel Prize.Women who were interested in chemistry tendedto choose medical professions, where they had muchbetter career opportunities. Today, however, there aremany women chemists in scientific professions. Accordingto a statistic of the National Pact for Women inMINT Careers (MINT: mathematics, information science,natural sciences, technology), approximately 47percent of the freshmen majoring in chemistry in Germanyare women. However, a gap opens up once theygraduate. “There’s a clear discrepancy between thenumbers of women studying chemistry and the numbersentering it as a career and becoming professionalscientists,” says Dr. Ines Weller, a professor at the Universityof Bremen who works at the Research Centerfor Sustainability Studies/Center for Gender Studies.“We’re not managing to keep this high proportion ofwomen. Instead, it drops significantly during the subsequentphase of advanced studies.”The chemistry professor Bettina Lotsch believesthere are several reasons for that. The most importantone is that many women believe they have to decidebetween having a family and having a career. In orderto show women possible solutions, universities haveto start as soon as possible, according to Lotsch, a 32-year-old researcher who doesn’t believe that quotasfor women are a good solution. “As early as graduateschool, we should be showing women different possibilitiesfor combining a family and a career. And then, ofcourse, we have to create the corresponding infrastructure,for example having daycare centers on campus.”Self-presentation is crucialSilvia Marten has successfully combined a career anda family. She heads a department at the Knauer companyin Berlin, which specializes in manufacturing scientificequipment, and has a nine-year-old daughter.Her husband travels a lot for his job. “Fortunately, mydaughter’s grandparents help out a lot, but daily lifestill requires lots of organization,” says the 39-yearoldchemist. Marten’s job requires her full concentrationand lots of travel, as she is in charge of so-called“column phase application.” This is a process in highperformanceliquid chromatography (HPLC) in whichmixtures of substances can be separated with extremeprecision and analyzed. Marten and her six specialistsare direct contact persons for the customers.Evonik Magazine CHEMICAL INDUSTRY SPECIAL ISSUE September 2010

56 ACHIEVINGBecoming a manager is no piece of cakePHOTOGRAPHY: THOMAS DASHUBER, ULLSTEIN BILD/AISAThe child-friendly policies of Silvia Marten’s employerhave helped her to combine her career and herfamily. Alexandra Knauer, the owner and CEO of thismedium-sized company, helps her 104 employees outwherever she can. She has set up a children’s roomwhere employees voluntarily take care of the childrenat the company’s expense. “Taking care of each other’schildren reinforces communication between theemployees and improves the working atmosphere as awhole,” says Knauer, who is herself the mother of twochildren. “We simply can’t afford to let the professionalpotential of women lie fallow,” she says. She believesit’s even more important to strengthen the way womenpresent themselves. “We have to realize that we’re justas good as the men, and we have to clearly communicateour achievements,” she emphasizes. That’s whyshe also offers training courses for women employees,where they can learn how to present themselves andhow to deal effectively with their male colleagues.Good work alone is not enoughDr. Andrea Schütze has also had to learn these professionalskills. Schütze, a 44-year-old chemist, waspreviously responsible for developing fuels at Shellin Hamburg; since January 2010 she has been a teamleader in the area of lubricant research. Together withher 12 team members she develops lubricants for thebearings of various transmission systems, rangingfrom window lifters in cars to airplane landing gearand wind turbines. All of these applications have verydifferent requirements, so her group always looks forthe optimal lubricant for every purpose. In her workshe deals not only with chemistry but also with processengineering.This is really male territory, but Andrea Schütze wasundaunted. “I’ve always been interested in chemistry,especially its practical applications. Besides, I likecars,” she says. Her parents also worked in technicalprofessions, so she had no fears regarding technology.What was new to her was the way women have to presentthemselves in a man’s world. “Men always showoff their achievements, but women still have to learnhow to do that. Good work alone is not enough,” shesays. “It’s wrong to simply expect the boss to seek youout when there’s a higher position to fill. You have tomake sure you’re not overlooked.” Bettina Lotsch hasalso observed a difference between men’s and women’sbehavior on the job. “One theory about why thereare so few women professors in the universities is thatthe structures there are very masculine. They are characterizedby networks, and men communicate differently.It’s not always easy for women to find their wayin this male-oriented world,” she says.Nonetheless, she deals with this difficulty in a relaxedway: “At meetings I don’t feel I always have todominate the discussion. I tend to stay in the background.I don’t need power.” What motivates her isscience. Even as a student she was one of the best, andshe received scholarship aid from the Chemical IndustryFund. In her master’s thesis she combined aspects ofphysical, organic, and inorganic chemistry, which aretraditionally strictly separate. She still follows this approachtoday. After receiving her doctorate she went toToronto, Canada, where she worked in the field of materialchemistry. She had previously concentrated moreon fundamental research, but now she changed her focusto applied research. For example, she investigatedporous materials on the nanoscale, which have impor-Chemistry professorDr. Bettina Lotsch, 32,doesn’t believe inquotas for women. TheUniversity of Munichpersuaded the nanoexpertto return toGermany fromToronto (Canada)Evonik Magazine CHEMICAL INDUSTRY SPECIAL ISSUE September 2010

ACHIEVING 57tant applications in the areas of gas storage, catalysis,and sensor technology on account of their extensivesurface area. It is hoped that their customized productionwill open up possibilities for a new “soft” chemistry.This field, known as “functional nanostructures,”is a hot topic at the moment, so the University of Munichwas not about to let this extraordinary young researchergo. It lured her back by offering her a professorship,which she accepted in February 2009. NowLotsch has to show whether she is equal to the demandsof this leadership position. “I have to build up my team,settle in, and start by getting used to being a professor,”she says. “And of course I have exactly the same teachingobligations as my colleagues.”She certainly can’t expect any special treatment. SylviaMartin sums up the situation as follows: “Womendefinitely have to be better than the men; you have towork hard to be accepted in this profession. It’s no pieceof cake.” It is therefore all the more important for womento enjoy their work, feel comfortable in their jobs, andnot let themselves be put under pressure. After all, unlikethe days of Marie Curie, all doors are now open towomen chemists—they merely have to step inside.SUMMARY• Approximately 47 percent of the freshmen majoring inchemistry are women, but there are still very few women inmanagerial positions in the chemical industry.• The main reasons for that include the difficulty ofcombining a family and a career—as well as theway women present themselves, because they often don’tfeel they can handle managerial responsibilities.• The solution involves building better infrastructures andpromoting stronger self-confidence among women.

58 LIVINGMicrozoos for Saving the WorldTOM SCHIMMECK reports on biochemistrythat aims to solve global problemsILLUSTRATION PETER PICHLER“WE’RE TRYING to find the ultimate solutionfor replacing oil,” says Prof. James C. Liao,Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineeringat the University of California in Los Angeles(UCLA). “That’s because the age of petroleumis coming to an end.”Prof. Liao’s words aren’t just an empty boast.He and his team have backed them up with pioneeringresearch that is moving toward “green”biochemistry, which could solve global problems.Their approach involves genetic alterationof microorganisms. The trick here is to manipulatebacteria so that they become able to turn asource of anxiety into a cornucopia of benefits.One example is carbon dioxide. Since the startof the Industrial Revolution, human beings haveproduced many gigatons of it, in addition to theamounts generated by natural processes. Carbondioxide isn’t a pollutant; on the contrary, it’sessential for life on Earth. The problem is its increasingamounts. The CO 2 from factory smokestacks,power plants, and vehicles is worseningthe notorious greenhouse effect that is changingthe climate. What can we do with the gas?In the Petri dishes in their labs, Prof. Liao andhis team are growing a genetically altered variantof the cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus,a photosynthetic freshwater bacterium thatcan turn the problematic CO 2 into clean fuel. Liao’steam is also working with the well-knownintestinal bacterium Escherichia coli, whose metabolismthe researchers have altered in such away that this coli bacterium has mutated into afuel factory. “We’ve been lucky to find a newmethod for very efficiently transforming carbondioxide into fuel,” reports Liao modestly.There are microorganisms in nature that canferment plants with high sugar or starch contentinto alcohol. However, natural microorganismsproduce only materials with a low energy content.So far, all attempts to increase this energycontent have proved to be far too inefficient. Butthe bacteria from Prof. Liao’s microzoo are ableto perform mighty feats: They can transformCO 2 into higher alcohols consisting of longermolecular chains, including biofuels such as isobutanol,which yield much more energy than thewell-known ethanol. And they do it by means ofphotosynthesis, which is fueled by solar energy.So emissions once again become fuel.This may sound a bit like turning water intowine. But it’s actually even better, because ifsuch a process becomes available on an industrialscale, a problem would immediately be solvedand a new, clean fuel would simultaneously beproduced. “We’ve shown that this possibilityis feasible,” says Liao. However, he adds that itwill take a great deal of further effort before themethod can be used by industry. He predicts thiswill happen “in five to ten years.”James Liao, who grew up in Taiwan, startedout as a chemical engineer. He has been a professorat UCLA since 1997 and has received somany awards for his pioneering work that hecould easily decorate an entire wall with them. InJune 2010, Liao received the Presidential GreenChemistry Challenge Academic Award of theEnvironmental Protection Agency in Washington(District of Columbia, USA). This covetedprize is awarded for the development of alternativetechnologies that reduce toxic waste or evenhelp to eliminate it altogether. President BarackObama sent his congratulations.According to Liao, a chemical engineer “isalways looking for ways to manipulate chemicalreactions within a system.” Liao is using thisapproach today in order to find out how we canchange the chemical reactions taking place insidea cell. It wasn’t until the beginning of the21st century that scientists began research focusingon altering cell metabolism.A metabolic engineer? Could the professionbe an icon of the postindustrial age? Thenew research areas are in fact called “metabolicengineering” and “synthetic biology.” Initially,says Liao, “we couldn’t imagine our work woulddevelop such a tremendous impact.” But todaythe pressure of global problems is the scientists’strongest motivation. “I always encourage mystudents to aim high,” Liao says. But there’s nocause for megalomania, he adds: “It takes manysmall steps to achieve a major change.”Microorganisms taking over chemical production.According to Liao, an initial “bacteriafactory” could be built right next to a powerplant—enabling it to directly transform theplant’s CO 2 emissions into biofuel. This couldpotentially even be cost-efficient. Does he considerhimself a genius? “Nature has created allof this,” says Liao evasively. “We’re only channelingthe natural biochemistry of the cell into auseful process.”Evonik Magazine CHEMICAL INDUSTRY SPECIAL ISSUE 2010

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