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First fabcing competition selects two winning teams

The average per capita plastics consumption in Germany amounts to approx. 76 kg/a. Extrapolated, the members of the Faculty of Bio- and Chemical Engineering consume about 120 tons per year, of which about half ends up in a landfill after use. Reason enough for the fabcing think tank on sustainability to announce a student competition on this topic.

A total of five teams from BCI took up the challenge and came up with processes for (material) PET recycling. Shortly before the submission of the process abstracts, the field thinned out and two contributions were submitted for consideration just before Christmas. Jan Seemann and Lorenz Rix chose an enzyme-based route here, while Ritika Kohli combined PET recycling with hydrogen generation via an electrocatalytic process.

In the final, both teams presented their processes and then answered questions from the plenum and the jury. Due to the fundamentally different processes, both presentations were very exciting and impressive in their depth of detail.

In the end, Jan Seemann and Lorenz Rix came out on top, receiving the €500 first prize. Ritika Kohli took second place and could look forward to €300. The two winning teams can also have 1 CP credited to the competition as part of the Studium Oecologicum and also receive free membership of the fabcing alumni association for the duration of their studies.