Honour for Prof. Walter Leitner, member of the GES Board of Trustees

Prof. Leitner is nominated for the European Inventor Award of the European Patent Office for the development of a new technique for the use of CO₂. He is head of “Technical Chemistry and Petrochemistry” at RWTH Aachen University and director at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion in Mühlheim/Ruhr. The new process he co-developed uses chemical catalysts to produce sustainable plastics from CO₂ together with conventional raw materials. Since CO₂ only forms chemical compounds to a very limited extent, this is a major breakthrough and a contribution to a CO₂ circular economy. Conventional oil as a carbon source is replaced by recycled climate gas. Global Energy Solutions is pursuing the same goal, primarily in the energy sector.