Collaboration At The Core Of Green Chemical Innovation

Motivated by the challenge of replacing fossil-based chemistry, Professor María Escudero Escribano works across scientific disciplines to develop pathways for sustainable chemical production.

How can we produce chemicals without relying on fossil fuels? This question is at the core of María Escudero Escribano's research. She is an internationally recognised expert in electrochemistry at the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology in Barcelona, and a former postdoc at DTU. She is also part of CAPeX – Pioneer Center at DTU, where she leads research on sustainable electrochemical processes and catalyst materials.

The goal is to replace conventional fossil-based chemical production with electrochemical processes powered by renewable electricity and abundant resources like water and CO2. This work unfolds in a highly international and collaborative research environment based at DTU. During her latest visit to DTU, she gathered PhD students and postdocs from different disciplines for a CAPeX Pioneer Lecture, sharing recent developments and insights from her research.

"Collaborations are essential to maximize the impact of our research. They allow us to connect fundamental discoveries with real-world applications and accelerate the translation of scientific discoveries into sustainable chemical technologies and solutions," María Escudero Escribano says.

For Tejs Vegge, Director of CAPeX, collaboration is a defining principle of the Pioneer Center.

"At CAPeX, we bring together leading electrochemists like Maria, alongside experts in AI, physics, bioengineering, robotics and computer sciences to advance the discovery and design of new advanced energy materials. This work is supported by access to self-driving laboratories and shared research infrastructure across institutions and borders. Together, this is essential if we are to move faster from fundamental insights to scalable green solutions," he says.

Designing catalysts for renewable chemical production
Today, most chemicals are produced in large, energy-intensive plants based on fossil resources. Escudero Escribano's research focuses on replacing these systems with electrochemical processes powered by renewable energy. This is also known as Power-to-X technologies.

One example from Maria's research team is the development of a new catalyst to produce dimethyl carbonate, an important chemical currently produced via fossil-based and energy-intensive processes. It is widely used as a green solvent, fuel additive, and building block in the chemical industry.

"We aim to produce chemicals such as fertilizers, fuels, pharmaceuticals, and materials in a decentralized, efficient, sustainable, clean, and safe way, which is essential for the decarbonization of the chemical industry and for building a more sustainable society," says María Escudero Escribano.

Key components in this transition are catalyst materials, which drive and accelerate chemical reactions. Because reactions occur at their surface, even small changes can strongly influence performance.

Her research focuses on understanding what happens at this surface during reactions, the so-called electrochemical interface. This interface is highly dynamic and changes continuously when in use, making it challenging to study.

By combining electrochemical methods with advanced techniques her team can observe reactions in real time at the atomic level to better understand the mechanisms behind the reactions. This knowledge is essential for designing catalysts that are more active, stable, and scalable for industrial use.

Collaborations lead to impact
For María Escudero Escribano, collaboration is essential to developing new catalyst materials for globally demanded chemicals such as dimethyl carbonate.

"The green transition is a global challenge that requires global solutions. These collaborations across research fields and institutions allow us to tackle problems that no single group can do alone and to accelerate scientific discoveries," she says before continuing:

"You really approach problems with multiple perspectives, which is very important. So, this combination of expertise allows us to ask better questions and find more creative solutions. This leads to more innovative and impactful science, which is what we need for sustainable technologies and processes to become a reality."

María Escudero Escribano also highlights the strong feedback loop between disciplines as a key feature of the collaborative research environment that CAPeX has built: Researchers design new catalyst materials, test their performance, and study their behaviour during reactions using advanced characterisation techniques. These insights are then fed back into the design process, helping to refine the materials and guide further development.

Looking ahead, she sees full control over electrochemical reactions as a key breakthrough in sustainable chemical production.

"This will only be possible through a strong international collaboration combining materials discovery, electrochemistry, modelling, and advanced characterisation," she underlines.