SusChem Switzerland

SusChem Switzerland is the Swiss entity of the SusChem European Technology Platform for Sustainable Chemistry. We bring together the unique diversity of Swiss leading academic institutions and chemical industries in order to discover and implement innovative solutions, with favourable environmental impact for next generations.

Community News

Show all news (archive)
Objectives and Main Activities
The aims of Suschem Switzerland are
  • to coordinate activities in Green & Sustainable Chemistry, as well as to provide platforms for experts and stakeholders for the exchange of information and know-how.
  • To provide visibility for activities and initiatives with regard to Green & Sustainable Chemistry in Switzerland and support our partner to promote their activities on European level.
  • To further educate on G&SC at various levels (students, academia, industrials, non-scientists). We showcase sustainable processing and the benefits of chemicals versus naturals. Explain and establish sustainability indexes.
  • To bring to life novel and pre-competitive scientific collaboration models between academia and industry. To the former to drive the science, to the latter to implement it.
  • To identify common area of interests and implement cross-sectorial collaborations (e.g. solvents, catalysis or the use of renewable feedstock).
  • To act as influencing group to steer interest in academia versus areas of high industrial interest.
Main activities
  • Organize the Swiss SusChem days
  • Organize meetings, seminars and  workshops
  • Award excellence in science with the Green & Sutainable Chemistry Award
  • Represent Switzerland on European level with delegates in the European Technology platform and SusChem
  • Take the guest editor role for a CHIMIA issues on aregular basis.
  • Inform the community via Social Media channels and with the SFC newsletter.

SusChem Switzerland, Industrial Priorities 2023

SusChem CH and its partners from industry and academia defined focus topics in R&D and production in order to improve the environmental footprint. The catalogue that is structured in six workpackages will be successively completed with additional information and links. The purpose is to provide a source of inspiration for innovators from academia and industry to develop solutions with the potential for high sustainability.
Waste Management
  • solvent purification (membrane)
  • mobile/modular waste treatment assets
  • recycling technologies (membrane)
  • energy efficient separation of complex waste
  • direct cycle (from waste to raw materials – by-pass CO2)
  • carbon capture where high concentration/purity
  • C-N-P waste management
  • waste treatment
     - enzymes
     - membranes
  • waste valorization
     - waste network - secondary usage of waste within our ecosystem 
  • upcycling
Reactions
  • non-precious metal catalysis
  • alternatives to metal catalysis
  • cross-coupling for biomass
  • oxidations - safe air/oxygen oxidations with non-precious/non-metal catalysis
  • redox-neutral sequences
  • green technologies (electrochemistry, photochemistry)
  • solvent-free reactions - mechanochemistry
  • chemistry in water
  • robust chemistry
  • characterization of reactions
Raw Materials
  • chemicals from CO2
  • new reactions with existing feedstock
  • generation of raws from toolbox of technologies (pyrolysis, gazification)
  • suitable sources of biomass/renewable, recaptured or biodegradable materials
  • green solvents / green building blocks (from renewable resources)
  • specification of biomass
  • database creation
Processing
  • reactor design
  • chemical engineering
  • manufacturing efficiency (operando methods...)
  • training of young professionals
Next generation of metrics
  • continuous education on LCA
  • sharing of data across industry
  • data standardization
  • digital twin for scenario assessment
Others
  • Biodegradable materials