Today, the research institute ARC CBBC is opening its first lab in Utrecht. In collaboration with the chemical sector, university researchers will work on fundamentally new principles for the development of current and future energy carriers and materials. “To be able to find really sustainable solutions, we will have to think radically different.”
Reach climate goals 2050
In the Advanced Research Center Chemical Building Blocks (ARC CBBC), 37 of the most talented chemists, physicists and engineers from universities throughout the Netherlands cooperate with chemical industry multinationals AkzoNobel, BASF, Nouryon and Shell. Bert Weckhuysen (Utrecht University) is the scientific director of ARC CBBC. “We want the Netherlands and the rest of the world to reach the climate goals for 2050”, says Weckhuysen. “The chemical industry doesn’t just want to be part of the problem, but also of the solution. The sector will have to become greener. Since ARC CBBC was founded in 2016, we have set up a number of research lines together, through which this institute will be able to contribute substantially to a more sustainable chemical industry.”
