FOM invests in Industrial Partnership Programme for making production processes 'greener'

The Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM) invests € 780,000 in an Industrial Partnership Programme for making production processes in the chemical industry greener: with less energy and smaller waste flows. Theoretical and experimental research groups from the universities of Eindhoven, Twente and Delft will be working together to make a contribution to 'greening' these processes. Multinationals AkzoNobel, DSM, SABIC, Shell and Tata Steel also contribute € 780,000 to the project.

The total investment for the project will be € 1.6 million. During the production of chemicals, the raw material for many products, reactions often take place between gases and liquids. During these reactions molecules go from the gas to the liquid. The gas is located in bubbles of different sizes in the liquid. The researchers will study these bubbles and use computer models to observe the behaviour on a larger scale.  
The university partners will develop experimental and computational techniques so that bubbles can literally be seen during a chemical reaction. The five companies involved in the project, AkzoNobel, DSM, SABIC, Shell and Tata Steel, will use the results to optimise their own production processes.

The Industrial Partnership Programmes (IPPs) have been set up to increase FOM's contribu-tion to the Dutch knowledge economy. In these programmes researchers from FOM and com-panies collaborate closely on challenging scientific problems with a large innovation potential. In an IPP, FOM staff carry out fundamental research over a period of several years in close contact with industrial researchers in areas with a good potential for innovation and challenging scientific questions. It is therefore collaborative research that could deliver groundbreaking innovations.

Proposals for IPPs can be submitted at any time; there are no deadlines.