Workshops targeting especially young professionals are marked with **.
1.1: Your job in the Chemical industry – Application process and (first) Employment Contract **
1.2: Aspects of digitalization - self-optimization in chemical process development
1.3: Bioeconomy & Biobased Polymers – from Material to Application
1.4: Towards circular carbon-based products and processes
1.5: The Power of Membrane Separation
1.6: Future Scenarios in Industrial Water Management
1.7: The role of CO2 direct air capture for defossilizing the process industry
1.8: Classical and AI-based spray measurement technology
2.1: Future-Proof Your Research Data: Practical Data Management
2.2: Foundation young group on energy, chemistry and climate **
2.3: Bridging the gap on CO2-based synthetic fuels – What’s left to do for applied research
2.4: The cost of (recombinant) protein production: Why is an egg still hard to beat?
2.7: DME: How can we unlock its great potential?
2.8: Young People for the Bioeconomy – 90 Minutes for Fresh Ideas **
1.1: Your job in the Chemical industry – Application process and (first) Employment Contract
Ida Tolksdorf and Pauline Rust; VAA
What salary can I expect? Which documents belong in my application? What should I check before signing an employment contract? This workshop answers these questions, explains the application process step by step, and provides practical tips for each stage. We’ll also review typical employment-contract clauses—and you’ll have time for your own career-entry questions.
Digitalization is transforming the chemical industry—from R&D to production and supply chains. This workshop focuses on opportunities and challenges of self-optimizing lab set-ups in process development, combining automated experiments (often with flow reactors), Process Analytical Technology, and optimization algorithms. We’ll present and discuss practical approaches and tools to support wider adoption.
1.3: Bioeconomy & Biobased Polymers – from Material to Application
Dr. Daniel Zehm¹, Antje Lieske¹, Inna Bretz², Mona Duhme²; ¹ Fraunhofer IAP, ² Fraunhofer UMSICHT
The workshop uses biobased polymers as a hands-on entry point to the bioeconomy, highlighting material classes and key trade-offs. After a short keynote, participants rotate through three interactive stations: value creation & sustainability, a material lab with sample comparisons, and use cases & cooperation. The goal is to explore practical applications, identify challenges and innovation potential along the value chain, and spark concrete collaborations.
1.4: Towards circular carbon-based products and processes
Dr. Franziska Müller-Langer¹, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jörg Sauer², Dr. Bernhard von Vacano³, Dr. Kathrin Rübberdt⁴; ¹ DBFZ, ² KIT, ³ BASF SE, ⁴ DECHEMA e.V.
How and within what timeframe can the transformation from linear (petrochemical) industry to circular economy be implemented? Who is responsible for providing carbon, carbon carriers or aspects of sector coupling? What are ensuing discussion topics for DECHEMA's sections?
1.5: The Power of Membrane Separation
Prof. Dr. Udo Kragl¹, Mathias Ulbricht²; ¹ Universität Rostock, ² University of Duisburg-Essen
Separating mixtures—for processing, catalyst separation, or solvent recovery—is a core operation in industry and the lab. While distillation, extraction, crystallization, and adsorption still dominate, membrane processes can offer major energy savings. With tailored materials, membranes enable selective separations, often in hybrid concepts with established methods. This workshop highlights the potential of membrane separations—standalone and in combination with other processes.
1.6: Future Scenarios in Industrial Water Management
Dr.-Ing. Jochen Schumacher¹, Thomas Track², Christoph Blöcher³, Matthias Kozariszczuk⁴; ¹ Evonik Operations GmbH, ² DECHEMA e.V., ³ Covestro Deutschland AG, ⁴ VDEh-Betriebsforschungsinstitut
Global disruptions—from technological change to geopolitics and ecology—are reshaping value creation in the life science and process industries. As planning becomes less predictable, strategies must embrace diverse scenarios and adaptability—especially in industrial water management. This workshop presents key trends and discusses what they mean for future water strategies.
1.7: The role of CO2 direct air capture for defossilizing the process industry
Prof. Dr. Roland Dittmeyer¹, Dr. Matthew Mayer², Dr. Mak Dukan³, Benjamin Scharrer⁴, Dr. Steffen Garbe⁵; ¹ KIT, ² HZME, ³ Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, ⁴ DACMA GmbH, ⁵ Phlair GmbH
This workshop explores how CO₂ direct air capture (DAC) could support defossilising the process industry—by supplying atmospheric CO₂ as an alternative carbon feedstock and by enabling carbon dioxide removal through storage or long‑lived products to offset residual emissions. It brings together perspectives from both the process industry and the emerging DAC sector.
1.8: Classical and AI-based spray measurement technology
Dr. Walter Schäfer; ai-quanton GmbH
This workshop showcases real-time spray measurement using the TSTOF principle. We present two approaches: classical single-droplet measurements in sprays and AI-based spray characterization with SprayQuantAI® and ParticleTensorAI® for process monitoring. Participants will learn how to characterize both individual droplets and the spray as a statistical ensemble—and explore new application areas for TSTOF beyond established methods like laser diffraction.
2.1: Future-Proof Your Research Data: Practical Data Management
Dr. Benjamin Golub-Overbeck; The FAIR Elephant
This hands-on workshop shows how to structure and future-proof data handling in R&D projects—especially in long-term, multi-partner collaborations. Using practical examples, participants develop immediately usable naming conventions and folder structures and learn the 5S Data Method for consistent workflows and sustainable data routines.
2.2: Foundation young group on energy, chemistry and climate
Prof. Dr. Emanuele Moioli¹, Franziska Mueller-Langer²; ¹ Politecnico di Milano, ² DBFZ
This workshop connects young professionals in energy, chemistry, and climate and kick-starts a new young group at the interface of energy research and chemistry. Together we discuss what a networking group can offer, why interdisciplinarity matters, and how to launch and shape the group.
2.3: Bridging the gap on CO2-based synthetic fuels – What’s left to do for applied research
Dr. Ulrike Junghans¹, Arne Roth²; ¹ Fraunhofer CBP, ² Fraunhofer IGB
Innovation pathways for CO₂-based synthetic fuels are evolving fast, but scale-up is still constrained by CO₂ feed quality, load flexibility, process integration, volatile markets, and investment risk. This workshop addresses these gaps to accelerate progress from lab to demonstration scale by discussing future customers and the right target scale (including decentralization), the most underestimated technical bottlenecks, and where scaling partners add the greatest value from laboratory to pilot scale.
2.4: The cost of (recombinant) protein production: Why is an egg still hard to beat?
Prof. Dr. Tobias Klein PhD and Andreas Daub; BASF SE
Demand for affordable recombinant proteins is growing, especially for microbially produced food proteins such as casein or ovalbumin. These animal-free proteins offer ethical benefits, a lower environmental footprint, and consistent quality—but production costs still limit large-scale adoption. This workshop discusses the key cost drivers and what “competitive” costs mean versus egg and milk, which hosts are used (and whether they are optimal), and how biological, technical, and regulatory constraints shape today’s economics and improvement potential.
2.5: Scenarios for the future
Norbert Kockmann; TU Dortmund
This workshop presents and discusses how technological, economic, political, and demographic trends are reshaping the chemical industry and the skilled-labor market. It is based on the VCI study “Szenarien für die Zukunft,” whose findings and policy recommendations will be shared with decision-makers. Organized by DECHEMA’s Section on Education and Innovation together with VCI experts, the session combines short inputs with audience discussion.
2.6: Towards a shared database of ex-ante process models for the systematic development of industrial decarbonization roadmaps (IETS Task XXIV by IEA)
Dr. Daniel Florez-Orrego PhD. Oktay Boztas, Meire Ellen Ribeiro Domingos, Pullah Bhatnagar, Vibhu Baibhav, François Marechal; École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Industrial decarbonization needs a validated, structured knowledge base on energy technologies and process configurations—yet data is often fragmented or inaccessible. Building on the Industrial Process Database from IEA IETS Task XXIV, this workshop brings academia and industry together to advance standardized process data (e.g., heat demands, waste streams, utility setups) for systematic process integration and decarbonization roadmaps. Participants will discuss database structure, data-sharing protocols, and decision-support methods to accelerate the energy transition.
2.7: DME: How can we unlock its great potential?
Dr. Achim Schaadt and Robert Szolak; Fraunhofer ISE
Hydrogen and derivatives like dimethyl ether (DME) are key to defossilizing transport, industry, and energy. Easily liquefied at low pressure and blendable with LPG (up to 20%), DME could support large-scale imports of sustainable energy and industrial feedstocks—yet it receives far less attention than ammonia or methanol. This workshop will identify promising DME applications, potential showstoppers, and innovative solutions.
2.8: Young People for the Bioeconomy – 90 Minutes for Fresh Ideas
Wolfgang Wach¹, Arne Gröngröft ², Jens Freitag³; ¹Südzucker, ²DBFZ, ³IPK Gatersleben
How do we turn the “bioeconomy” from a buzzword into real impact—and what does it take for biobased value chains to deliver? This interactive workshop starts with a candid look at the transformation so far: what has worked, and where we still fall short. Then it’s your turn: in small teams you’ll develop bold ideas and theses, challenge the usual thinking, and test unconventional approaches. The bioeconomy is not “next to” established disciplines—it will increasingly merge with them, much like AI.
The goal is to generate impulses you can feed into the DECHEMA Section Biobased Value Chains and to spark links with other sections. Designed as an open ideation space with lively exchange and tangible outcomes—ideally the starting point for a group that keeps going beyond the workshop.
