Sustainable Chemistry (M.Sc.)

Projekt Work Sustainability Assessment

For students in Sustainable Chemistry M.Sc., we offer the seminar ‘Project Work Sustainability Assessment’ every semester.

Thematic focus for the coming winter term 2026/27:

Life Cycle Assessment of Bio-Based Ethylene Glycol Production from Regional Biomass

The transition from fossil raw materials to renewable resources is one of the most critical challenges facing today’s industrial landscape. To significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, environmental impacts, and import dependencies, existing supply chains, business models and infrastructures must be fundamentally transformed. In this context, the regional bioeconomy plays a key role: By utilizing locally available biomass and organic waste streams, regions can combine climate protection and supply security with local value creation.

Bio-based routes are commonly assumed to be environmentally superior to fossil ones, but this is not self-evident. Collecting and transporting dispersed residues, pre-treating them and converting them into ethylene glycol (EG) all consume energy and materials, and the resulting benefit depends strongly on how the regional chain is set up. A life cycle assessment is therefore needed to quantify the environmental impacts of the process chain across all its stages and to make them comparable with the established fossil process. Without such a quantification, neither the environmental case for a regional EG production nor the process steps that determine it can be substantiated.

Registration and further Information: If you wish to register by 12.10.2026 or require further information, please contact Nadja Vierzigmann.