Antonia Helf is doing her doctorate at the Institute of Energy Process Engineering and Chemical Engineering (IEC). In March, she was invited by TUBAF partner university Dartmouth College to attend the renowned "CERAWeek" in Houston, Texas, via the "NextGen Cohort" programme.
CERAWeek is not a traditional scientific conference. Why were you there and what did you do there?
CERAWeek is the world's largest energy conference and the annual who's who of the American oil and gas industry. Through the NextGen programme, master's and doctoral students from all over the world meet innovators as well as established names in the energy industry - in the US energy city of Houston. There is a political and a practical-technological part with panel discussions, presentations by start-ups and interviews with personalities from the American oil and gas industry. This very extensive programme offered plenty of input on what is currently happening in the US industry.
In addition to the actual programme, there was always the opportunity to talk to other participants, either over a coffee or at organised meet-ups, for example with the "Women in Energy" programme. Even if, at first glance, the many presentations and discussions did not directly help me with my doctorate, it was incredibly exciting to see the international context in which I am travelling with my research.
What do you find exciting about your research topic?
We are working on chemical recycling. We want to produce chemical raw materials from various types of waste that would otherwise be incinerated. I am investigating how renewable energies can be integrated into these processes to make them more efficient and climate-friendly. We then evaluate the process chain from a technological, economic and ecological perspective. What is particularly exciting at the moment are, on the one hand, the framework conditions - because without fossil input materials, there is no scalable source of raw materials - and, on the other hand, the bottlenecks (i.e. the weak points) of the technology itself that need to be addressed. Both issues can provide answers to strategic energy supply questions!
And what remains of CERAWeek? What did you take away from the USA?
Three things were particularly exciting for me:
- The discussions in the energy sector are similar to those in Germany, even if the topic of climate change is neither politically nor traditionally high on the agenda in the oil and gas industry. There are discussions about how innovation can be financed and that regulatory certainty is extremely important for this.
- Nuclear power, particularly in the form of so-called small modular reactors, is a major topic internationally and fusion power plants are no longer such a distant prospect.
- For the energy industry, AI is a huge challenge, as large amounts of additional energy are needed quickly; on the other hand, it is also a huge opportunity, as AI can optimise many processes.
For me personally, my takeaway is this: There are young people all over the world like us here at TUBAF who are keen to shape the future and who have the vision and motivation to make a difference!
