Dear colleagues of IKFT,
A busy and eventful year 2025 is coming to an end! We would like to close the year in a cheerful gathering and look forward to the new one. It will be a time to leave the everyday hustle behind, talk, laugh, eat, and drink together.
Therefore, we warmly invite you to the IKFT Christmas Party 2025!
It will take place on December 2, 2025 from 12:00 at IKFT.

A large group of researchers from KIT attended the 16th European Congress on Catalysis (EuropaCat 2025) in Trondheim, Norway (31.08 to 05.09.2025). Professors, postdoctoral and doctoral researchers from IKFT, as well as ITCP and ITC, contributed with posters, oral presentations, and a plenary lecture, showcasing the catalysis research at KIT.

Suspension aging is critical in the synthesis of Cu/Zn-based methanol catalysts, because this process of chemical transformations includes crystallization of different phases. The evolution of these phases within the precipitate is leading along the so-called transitory tipping point to the target phase zincian malachite. More information can be found in the Research Article by Lucas Warmuth and co-workers (DOI: 10.1002/cplu.202500284).

An international group of junior researchers visited IKFT on 9th July 2025 as part of a scientific tour in the state of Baden-Württemberg (THE LÄND) following the Nobel Laureate Meetings in Lindau, Germany. This year’s edition of this famous meeting was dedicated to chemistry with a special focus on sustainability and circular chemistry. During the follow-up tour, the thematic focus was also placed on these urgent topics where catalytic technologies are a major driver.

Asad Asadli won the Best Poster Award at the 58th international Annual Meeting of German Catalytic Scientists (Jahrestreffen Deutscher Katalytiker) in Weimar. Congratulations!

For the third time in a row, task lead of the International Energy Agency (IEA) Bioenergy Task 34 ‚Direct Thermochemical Liquefaction (DTL)‘ will remain at IKFT with Dr.-Ing. Axel Funke and Alex Böhm for the upcoming triennium 2025-2027. IEA Bioenergy Task 34 consists of representatives from research institutes and industry to advance commercial implementation of DTL technology. One key aspect of the upcoming work will be mobilization of diverse biogenic residues, a topic that has been fostered by IKFT for many years already. Additionally, cross cutting topics like negative CO2 emissions, flexible supply of energy, and synergies between hydrogen- and bio-based value chains are actively shaped within IEA Bioenergy.

https://task34.ieabioenergy.com/

In the BMWK joint project “3D-PROCESS”, researchers from Evonik, KIT and Siemens are developing innovative reactor concepts that fit into a shoebox.

Rabia Ilica won the 1st Poster Prize at the Catalysis "Fundamentals and Practice" Summer School 2024 in Liverpool, England.

Students from the Course “Process Development and Scale-up” at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) visited the department “Process Technology & Engineering” at Evonik Industries at the Hanau-site at the end of April.

Dr Lucas Spiske successfully defended his thesis "Theoretical investigation of n-butane isomerization in metal-substituted aluminosilicates" on October 23.

Our recent study on Spatially and Temporally Resolved Measurements of NO Adsorption/Desorption over NOx-Storage Catalyst by Sui Wan et al., published as VeryImportantPaper by ChemPhysChem revealed the potential of PLIF as very useful tool to investigate the interaction between surface kinetics and the surrounding gas flow, especially for transient catalytic processes.