Science in Focus

Gert-Jan Euverink and start-up company BioFashionTech want to use biotechnology to convert discarded textiles into useful resources for industry. ‘A company like DSM or Avantium could use the sugars that we obtain from cotton in this way to manufacture bioplastics, biogas, or cleaning products.’

Researcher Mauricio Muñoz-Arias and his colleagues at the University of Groningen are working on a fully automated textile sorting process with textile collector Sympany. The goal: a system that can draw the conclusion: Ah, this is a vintage coat that will yield around 150 euros in second-hand sale.

Once they leave our bodies, medicines enter the sewer system and eventually end up in rivers and other surface waters. This is harmful to aquatic life. As part of a major European project, Eelko Hak and his colleagues from the Department of Pharmacy work to reduce and remove pharmaceutical residues.

Organic chemist Michael Lerch is fascinated by ‘engineering solutions’ that can be found in nature. He is working on smart materials, and wants to make robots that move more smoothly by using smart materials that can act as a chemistry-based operating system.

Even in extreme circumstances, the green sulfur bacterium can still convert light into energy – and that could be a source of inspiration for a new generation of solar cells. Physicist Thomas La Cour Jansen of the University of Groningen studies how the structure of this unique bacterium allows it to harvest energy from light so efficiently.

Jan Anton Koster jokingly calls himself the ‘device doctor’. Fellow researchers from all over the world can approach this professor at the University of Groningen if they want to know why their solar cell is not as good as they had hoped.

Chemist Loredana Protesescu of the University of Groningen is working on more stable, lead-free perovskites and has recently received a grant to develop an ink that contains all components needed for a solar cell, such that it only needs to be applied to a surface before use.

Scientists from the University of Groningen (RUG) and the University Medical Centre Groningen (UMCG) are developing stents and valves made from soft materials as part of HTRIC’s research programme ‘Minimally invasive implants made from smart, soft materials’, financed by the Ubbo Emmius Fund.

Bayu Jayawardhana controls robots with mathematical formulas. He does this, for instance, in the new project FARMLAB, in which various types of agricultural robots work together to monitor crops in real time.

The University of Groningen is among the world leaders in the field of Systems and Control. At the Jan C. Willems Centre for Systems and Control, researchers from the University are working on the mathematics behind a wide range of applications, such as high-tech manufacturing processes or a knee prosthesis.

In the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) near Geneva, Switzerland, protons collide with each other at almost the speed of light. Physicists from the University of Groningen use these collisions to study the fundamental building blocks of matter, in their search for signs that could point to new physics.

Researchers Xin Sun and Xiaohua Li look at the life cycle of batteries, from raw materials to disposal at the end of battery life, and how to make recycling more effective and greener.

There is a small chance that rechargeable lithium batteries will ignite or even explode. Giuseppe Portale, associate professor in Polymer Chemistry at the University of Groningen, is working on safer batteries.

Edwin Otten is working on a battery that stores electric power in large containers of fluid.  To make such a battery effective and affordable, a lot more research is still needed.

A great deal of research is required to develop the best or cleanest batteries. But how does a battery actually work?

An €800 million programme funded by the Dutch National Growth Fund aims to stimulate the Dutch battery ecosystem and make a global impact. Scientists from the University of Groningen contribute to this programme, designing and building the batteries of the future.

Klaus Hubacek analyses the effects of various green solutions to reduce CO₂ emissions — such as planting more trees, sharing cars, or working less — to find out whether they realize their intended outcome. Spoiler: almost everything has a downside, yes, even planting trees in some cases.