Successful Presentation at "RWTH Science Night“

The “RWTH Science Night”, which has been taking place every year now since 2003 on the second Friday in November, is an event to present science in an unusual way and at an unusual time to the public. Various scientific topics are presented for young and old alike in form of dynamic and engaging special events comprising interesting lectures, film screenings, musical performances as well as exhibits. By this science is made graspable by providing education and fun through lively hands-on experience.

As usual in the last years, our research group was also present at the event. This year we introduced our research group by means of a poster (400 KB). Additionally, we teamed up with the Aachener Verfahrenstechnik (AVT), one of the members of the Cluster of Excellence: Tailor-Made Fuels from Biomass (CoE TMFB), presenting the visualization of a novel fuel synthesis inside a virtual biorefinery.

The CoE TMFB focuses on developing new alternative fuels from biomass, which will not be competing with the food chain and thus raise new standards of sustainability. In addition to molecular fuel design, the CoE developed novel process concepts for the synthesis of the platform chemical itaconic acid utilizing biologic waste such as wood.

Complementing the TMFB Lego model, we enabled numerous visitors to gain insight into this new biorefinery, which is currently being built for research purposes at technical scale at Campus Melaten in Aachen. By exploring the virtual prototype of the biorefinery, the visitors could easily understand the involved mechanisms and challenges as well as the basic concepts utilized in the production route design and track different chemical compounds from their origin to the product – or simply enjoy the VR experience.