Covestro funds professorship to advance electrochemistry research

RWTH Aachen University, Germany is expanding research into electrochemistry – an area that could contribute to sustainability – by establishing a new, five-year professorship. Chemicals company Covestro is supporting the professorship through a “major” donation.

Electrochemistry could contribute significantly to sustainability through the development of alternative raw materials, such as for chemical and plastics production, by employing energy saving processes and renewable energy sources. According to Covestro, innovation and further research are key to enabling contribution from the field.

RWTH Aachen has appointed Anna Mechler to the newly established position of Professor of Electrochemical Reaction Engineering in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.

Through its Electrochemical Reaction Engineering department RWTH Aachen will develop electrochemical processes and contribute to establishing carbon-neutral value chains. The department’s research aims include expanding the use of carbon dioxide as a raw material in the chemical industry and identifying methods for improved storage of hydrogen, which is receiving widescale attention as an alternative energy carrier. It will aim to scale up electrochemical processes to industrial standards.

The new department is expected to act as a bridge between electrochemistry research carried out at RWTH Aachen and Forschungszentrum Jülich, one of Europe’s largest interdisciplinary research centres. This is expected to strengthen the Jülich Aachen Research Alliance (JARA), an existing partnership through which the organisations combine their expertise to facilitate research opportunities and projects they could not achieve alone.

Anna Mechler studied Applied Science (BSc) and Materials Sciences (MSc) at universities in Germany and obtained a doctorate in Chemistry. Prior to her role at RTWH Aachen she was leading a group in the Department of Heterogenous Reactions at Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion in Germany.