News overview

Big success for green chemistry in Germany: Center for the Transformation of Chemistry (CTC) becomes new major research center

CTC from above
Visualisation of the design concept for establishing the CTC on the site of the former sugar factory in Delitzsch. © HDR GmbH

The concept for the "Center for the Transformation of Chemistry" (CTC) has been selected from almost 100 ideas in the joint competition "Wissen schafft Perspektiven für die Region!" organised by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the State of Saxony and the State of Saxony-Anhalt. The competition aimed to identify two large-scale research centers for the Central German region. The goal of the winning project CTC is to establish a center for green chemistry with the aim to transform the previously linear chemical industry into a sustainable circular economy. The concept for the CTC was developed by UniSysCat group leader Prof. Peter Seeberger and Dr. Matthew Plutschack from the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces. UniSysCat very much welcomes this promotion of green chemistry.

"In order to secure the supply and functioning of the entire economy in Germany as a business location, it is urgently necessary to rethink feedstocks, processes and products and to establish the hitherto linear chemical industry, which also produces large amounts of carbon dioxide as well as toxic waste and wastewater, as a resilient circular economy in the long term," explains Peter Seeberger. "Cost-effective and sustainable production processes mainly from renewable raw materials or recycled materials in compliance with the highest occupational safety and environmental standards and drastically shortened transport routes must be ensured."

Without a transformation of chemistry towards sustainable green chemistry, European climate goals can not be achieved, economic prosperity can not be maintained and future-proof employment opportunities can not be realised.

"There are approaches in industry and science worldwide in this direction, but no comparable research center. The new large-scale research centre will be a globally visible beacon of cutting-edge research and a seedbed for settlements and spin-offs in the Central German region," says Peter Seeberger.

The CTC is being built in Delitzsch, thus continuing the long tradition in the Halle/Merseburg/Bitterfeld chemical triangle. It is being set up as part of the joint ideas competition "Wissen schafft Perspektiven für die Region!" and will receive institutional funding of up to 170 million euros annually. The aim is to shape the structural change in the Central German region in a future-oriented way after the coal phase-out and to strengthen Germany as a location for science and innovation.