€13 million for a new joint laboratory at the TU Berlin for raw-material change
Ceremonial signing of the contract on 8th December / Invitation to press conference with guided tour of a laboratory
The Cluster of Excellence “Unifying Concepts in Catalysis” (UniCat) and the worldwide largest chemical company BASF SE launch a joint laboratory, the “UniCat-BASF Joint Lab”. A ceremony to celebrate the signing of the contract will be held on 8th December 2011. The aim of the laboratory is to develop new catalytic processes for raw-material change such as to replace crude-oil. BASF is to invest up to €6.4 million over the course of the first five years. The amount in total is approximately €13 million.
Journalists are cordially invited to the contract-signing ceremony and the subsequent guided tour of a laboratory:
Place: TU Berlin, Hauptgebäude (Main Building), Straße des 17. Juni 135, 10623 Berlin, Raum H 1036
Time: Thursday 8th December 2011, 10.30 am to 11.30 am
For questions, please contact one of the following contact people:
- Dr. Knut Nevermann, State Secretary, Senate Administration for Education, Youth and Science
- Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jörg Steinbach, President of the Technische Universität Berlin
- Dr. Friedrich Seitz, President of BASF’s Competence Center Chemicals Research & Engineering
- Prof. Dr. Matthias Drieß, TU Berlin, Spokesman for the "Unifying Concepts in Catalysis” (UniCat) Cluster of Excellence
The press conference will be followed by a guided tour of the pilot plant for the transformation of natural gas into chemical raw materials.
Please register until December 06 by E-mail: pressestelle(at)tu-berlin.de or fax to: 030/314-23909
“Unifying Concepts in Catalysis” (UniCat) is an interdisciplinary research network within the framework of the Excellence Initiative of the German Research Foundation. Its main focus is on catalysis. Four universities and two Max Planck Institutes are involved in UniCat in the Berlin region. A total of more than 50 working groups collaborate on research areas that are of major interest to future scientific developments in fields ranging from the chemical conversion of natural and biogas, the activation of carbon dioxide and the creation of hydrogen from light and water, to the synthesis of active ingredients using enzymes. The Cluster is hosted by the Technische Universität Berlin. UniCat receives funding of approximately €5.6 million each year as part of the Excellence Initiative.
BASF is the world’s largest chemical company in terms of turnover, with a portfolio ranging from chemicals, plastics, performance products and agricultural products to oil and gas. Projects in the field of raw material change are a research focus in the BASF Research Verbund. In the future natural gas, carbon dioxide and biomass should supplement increasingly crude oil as raw materials in chemical production.
For further information please contact: Dr. Martin Penno, UniCat, TU Berlin, Tel: 030/314-28592, E-Mail: martin.penno(at)tu-berlin.de, and
Manuela Kummeter, BASF SE, Tel.: 0621/60-91211, E-Mail: manuela.kummeter(at)basf.com
To download press releases and press photos go to:
www.pressestelle.tu-berlin.de/medieninformationen/
“EIN-Blick für Journalisten” – A service offered by TU Berlin for media representatives: research reports, expert services, idea pools, photo galleries: http://www.pressestelle.tu-berlin.de/?id=4608