ASPECT

What is ASPECT

ASPECT (Advanced Sustainable Processes by Engaging Catalytic Technologies) Programme

The ASPECT programme concentrates on commodity chemicals and catalysis with the aim of increasing sustainability. The goals as formulated in the program are largely based on the Report 'Catalysis, key to sustainability' of the Technology Roadmap Catalysis. They aim for long-term changes, requiring a concerted effort of industry, academia and other research institutes. The ASPECT programme has the following research themes:

  • Short- to medium-term research activities, focusing on the present slate of products and their manufacturing processes, as they are expected to change only marginally in the next 5 to 10 years. Projects in this part of the programme focus on the utilization of current feedstocks and their conversion processes, aiming for significant improvements in selectivity and yield, as well as integration of several process steps.
  • Activities focusing on long-term changes, to accomplish a significant transition to more sustainable or renewable feedstocks. Methane and lower alkanes will be screened as feed for new routes to existing products. Today these feedstocks are often incinerated at production sites. The challenge is to develop new, very efficient oxidation catalysts employing air or oxygen as reagent. Renewable feedstocks will ultimately close the C-cycle in the production of bulk chemicals. Main challenges here are the use of renewable feedstocks in existing processes and infrastructures, the development of bio-catalytic and fully biosynthetic processes for bulk chemicals, and the integration of chemo-catalysis and bio-catalysis.
  • Enabling tools should be developed as an integral part of these programmes and projects, like 'high-throughput' techniques, and various in situ spectroscopic techniques. This will enable a significant reduction of the development time for bulk chemical processes.

ASPECT, a 12,5 M€ research programme
ASPECT is financially supported by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), as well as by a number of industries: Albemarle Catalysts, Dow Benelux, DSM, BASF, Exxon Mobil, Johnson Matthey, SABIC, and Shell. The program is open to all Dutch universities and some research institutes under the standard ACTS-NWO rules.