We welcome Rinke Altink as Program Manager for Biobased and circularity. Rinke joins us with 30 years of experience from DSM Research in Geleen and will be one of TNO’s employees from 15 April, where he will fulfill his role for Brightsite.
After studying organic chemistry, he worked within DSM Research for various business units in various projects and programs, with both a short-term (direct plant improvements) and long-term focus (collaborations with academia) and topics such as process improvements, waste reduction, capacity expansion and energy reduction in bulk and fine chemical processes.
Since 2004 he has been involved in various studies in the field of sustainability for bulk chemistry, integrated water management for the Chemelot site and a large biobased product process development project. Rinke was recently active as program manager for DSM Materials Science Center responsible for all research from Geleen (300 FTE) for units outside the DSM Materials Cluster and for third parties, on a commercial basis. He is very much looking forward to contributing to the realization of increased sustainability for chemical processes in Geleen and beyond, based on his passion for chemistry.
Reduction of emissions by replacing naphtha and natural gas usage
In a truly carbon neutral and circular economy, no new fossil resources such as naphtha or natural gas should be added to the carbon cycle. Abandoning fossil resources means closing the cycle by using waste materials and biomass as feedstock for the production of new materials. The program line Reduction of emissions by replacing naphtha and natural gas usage focusses on new technologies and eliminating the GHG emissions associated with fossil resources.
Three potential routes for obtaining circular resources have been identified and will be studied and developed:
- The gasification of plastic, domestic waste and biomass
- The pyrolysis of plastics
- The dissolution and depolymerization of plastics
Besides technological advances, the main challenge is the supply and availability of waste materials.