The Catalyst Review August 2020 - 8

SPECIAL FEATURE
The Fritz-Haber Institute (FHI), Berlin: FHI is one of the earliest MPI. It has a prestigious reputation in the field of catalysis and is one
of the largest and best equipped globally. Over half of the FHI's funding comes from the Max-Planck Society and much of the rest
from the German government. The industrial funding historically has been relatively small. The center has also been awarded over
eight European Research Council (ERC) grants.
FHI has a broad network of partners including collaborative research centres known as Sonderforschungsbereiche (SFB) and clusters
with bring together Berlin universities. FHI scientists participate in Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) Priority Programs which
link German institutes or co-funded DFG projects with foreign countries: e.g., DFG-NSFC with China and DFG-FAPERJ with Brazil.
International co-financed projects are carried out with the US DOE, the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and the European
Union amongst others. Industrial partnerships include BASF, Clariant, ThyssenKrupp and Volkswagen to name a few. The institute has
had a profound effect on industrial catalysis historically beginning with the original research on Haber-Bosch ammonia catalysis and
continues to be instrumental in developing a better empirical understanding of successful commercial catalyst systems. Key research
groups involved in catalysis for renewables and decarbonization include:
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Department of Inorganic Chemistry: Director: Prof. Robert Schlögl. Projects on multi-scale heterogeneous catalysis studied with
in-situ kinetic methodology. Decarbonization research includes CO2 methanation catalysis, dry reforming of methane and CO2
activation.
Department of Interface Science: Director: Prof. Beatriz Roldan Cuenya. Research on thermal catalysis, nanostructures and
electrocatalysis. Sustainable projects include electrochemical CO2 reduction and hydrogen/catalyst surface interactions.

Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion: The MPI CEC, directed by carries out fundamental design and mechanistic
investigations of the catalyst surfaces. In particular the chemical transformations of small molecules such as CO, CO2, H2, H2O, and
N2 for production of green hydrogen, methanol and ammonia which play a major role in decarbonization. Specific research groups
involved in green chemistry and catalysis include:
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Energy Converting Enzymes (Dr. J. Birrell): study of enzymes for oxidation and proton reduction.
Carbon Synthesis and Application (Dr. Saskia Heumann): electrode materials for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in water
electrolysis
Molecular Catalysis, (Prof. Dr. Walter Leitner) study of CO2 reduction, CO2 to formic acid and methyl formate, sugar to biobased
chemicals, lignin depolymerisation

There are several other MPI involved in decarbonization catalysis which are too numerous to mention in this article. These will be
covered in future articles dedicated to catalysis in Germany.
Leibniz Association

The Leibniz Association, headquartered in Berlin is an independent organisation which connects 96 non-university, independent
research institutions covering technical topics from environmental and natural sciences, economics, spatial and social sciences and
the humanities. Its president is Prof. Matthias Kleiner (LIKAT 2020). The highest profile research group for catalysis (LIKAT) is profiled
below.
Leibniz Institute of Catalysis (LIKAT): The largest single CCOE in Germany is the Leibniz Institute of Catalysis (LIKAT), based at the
University of Rostock (LIKAT, 2020). LIKAT was founded in 1952 by two professors: Günther Rienäcker and Wolfgang Langenbeck. It
was the first dedicated catalysis research centre, and now one of the largest publicly funded in Europe. The common purpose being
to address matters of social, economic and ecological relevance. LIKAT's organizational structure includes an executive board, an
internal scientific board and committee and a board of curators. It is financed jointly by Mecklenburg-West Pomerania (MV), its host
state and the German federal government.
The research is organized in the Program Departments 1-3 with the corresponding Research Departments. Departments covering
decarbonization research are:
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The Applied Sustainable Catalytic Processes directed by Prof. Matthias Beller covers heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysis,
applied to bulk and fine chemicals and catalysis for renewables.
The Catalysis with Renewable Resources coordinated by Prof. Johannes G. de Vries covers conversion of renewables into
platform chemicals and bio-monomers, e.g. adipic acid, adiponitrile, butadiene and caprolactam.

Around 150 businesses have been spun-off with at least part of their technology developed at Leibniz Institutes since 1990.
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The Catalyst Review

August 2020

The Catalyst Review August 2020

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