Electrochemical crystallization supported by the RWTH Innovation Sprint
The ExCryst project has been selected by an expert jury from industry and academia for the RWTH Innovation Sprint. As one of seven teams, ExCryst, consisting of Marcel Gausmann and Christian Kocks, is part of the fourth Innovation Sprint to develop a prototype for the technical scale of electrochemical crystallization of carboxylic acids.
Electrochemical crystallization is a new separation technology for the processing of carboxylic acids. Carboxylic acids are important intermediates in the chemical industry and are needed to produce plastics, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals. So far, large quantities of chemicals have been used in their production, which generates ecologically problematic salt-containing wastewater.
In the new process, the chemicals are replaced by electricity, and the resulting wastewater is drastically reduced. As part of the RWTH Innovation Sprint, the existing laboratory reactor will be scaled up to the pilot scale to test the performance of the technology in pilot operation and to identify promising commercial applications.
The RWTH Innovation Sprint is part of the Exzellenz Start-up Center.NRW initiative, and aims to validate the commercial viability of new technologies to transfer them from research to application. Technologies in fields such as sustainable production, medical technology, robotics, and AI are funded.