On May 13th 2024 Elisabeth Nowottny successfully defended her doctoral thesis, which is titled “Kinetic Modeling of the high-pressure free-radical copolymerization of ethene and vinyl acetate”.

This year’s spring hike (“Blütenwanderung”) of the TU Darmstadt research groups on technical chemistry took place on April 30th and took the participants from Jugenheim to the Kuralpe Kreuzhof in Lautertal.

This year’s meeting of the DECHEMA working groups for High-Pressure Process Engineering and Adsorption took place from March 13th to 15th at the Hörsaal- und Medienzentrum (HMZ) of TU Darmstadt.

In the context of this year’s Advanced Design Project, about 60 participants visited the LyondellBasell Wesseling site on the 27th and 28th February 2024. Apart from the 13 students of the US universities and about 30 students from TU Darmstadt and Provadis Hochschule Frankfurt, some visitors from the research group Busch also joined the excursion.

From 12th to 23rd February 2024, the two-week Advanced Design Project of the technical chemistry took place where the students planned a high-density polyethylene (HDPE) producing plant and investigated an optimization task. This year, the course was supported by LyondellBasell who enabled the students to visit their site in Wesseling on the 27th and 28th February.

In this year's Christmas party on the 15th of December, the working group and Prof. Busch took part in a digital escape game. Looking for a (digital) treasure, five teams searched through the city center and solved different puzzles. After its completion, everyone came back together for a mulled wine at the Christmas market. In the end, the evening was rounded with dinner at the Oberwaldhaus.

On December 14th the graduation party of the department of chemistry took place, which twice a year honors the graduates, who completed their Bachelor's or Master's degree or doctorate.

Prof. Busch, Denise Eryildirim, Lorenz Schmidt and Joshua Stahl travelled from December 12th to 14th to Sweden to visit the company Borealis in Stenungsund. The working group Busch and Borealis AG have a long-lasting cooperation in various projects.

As a tradition, the Santa Claus coffee of the working group always takes place in December of each year. All current and past members of the group are invited to join a cozy evening with food and drinks in a decorated atmosphere. In this year’s edition, on the 8th of December, over 40 participants joined, with 13 alumni among them.

This year’s award of the Dr. Hans Messer Foundation was presented to Dr. Kristina Zentel on the 23rd November 2023 for her research on the topic of sustainable, multiphase polymerization processes.