State-of-the-art analysis in the lab for sustainable technologies

A good analysis is half the battle. A lot of research is being done into sustainable products in laboratories using analytical techniques. One of the researchers is Gert Jan Gruter, professor of Industrial Sustainable Chemistry at UVA and chief technology officer at Avantium. During LabAnalyse he will talk about the importance of state-of-the-art analytical techniques necessary for the development of various sustainable technologies.

By: Dimitri Reijerman

“We need analytical techniques for a better environment,” says Gruter. “During my lecture I will give examples that show that such analyzes are very important. And if you want to develop a sustainable process, it is important that you have a good mass balance early in the research, so that you know how much of the desired product is formed in addition to the amount of non-by-products.”

He continues: “At Avantium, we look at the process very early. What does a recycle look like? What kind of build-up do we get from impurities in a particular recycle? Analytical techniques play a very important role in this. We either have that knowledge ourselves, or we outsource it to, for example, universities or companies that can perform such analyses.”

Gruter gives a practical example in which analytical techniques play an important role: “Analyses of sugar are always very important to us, because sugars (carbohydrates) are the raw materials for a bio-based economy that we are working on at Avantium. For example, we are working on a bio-refining process. Take wood chips that you want to convert (cascade) into different cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin fractions. But there are many different types of biomass with major differences in hemicellulose and lignin.”

“To determine how good our process is, we must first determine the exact composition of that biomass. We must therefore be able to characterize the starting material properly. We need various analytical data to get a complete picture of the success of the chemical conversion. We therefore also take many samples during the process, so that you can closely monitor how the process is progressing. And that data in turn forms the input for a computer model (e.g. ASPEN model) of your process.”

As another example, a lot of research is also being done into sustainable plastics. “We also do a lot of parallel chemistry, which is what Avantium is known for,” says Gruter. “You also need a lot of analysis power for that. With plastics you need different analytical techniques. For example, we measure the gas barrier of a plastic, asking, for example, how easily oxygen or CO2 passes through the wall. And we measure the thermal properties of polymers, for example at what temperature these plastics start to decompose. We also test the biodegradability of plastics.”

Gruter, who is still preparing for his presentation, has a clear conclusion: “Research is our core business, and in our field you cannot achieve anything without analytical techniques. But I would like to say that you have to think outside the box every now and then. And we don't always have to get the very best quality from a test, sometimes the margin of error can be a little larger. As long as the reproducibility is good. This allows you to analyze more samples and ultimately do many more experiments.”

You can follow Gert-Jan Gruter's presentation during the LabAnalyse event on June 16, 2022 in De Kuip in Rotterdam. Registration is free of charge for anyone who works in or for a laboratory. Register via this form.