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Transforming the chemical industry to be sustainable: Can it be done?

Sustainable Transformation Seminars

The Sustainable Transformation Seminars spring 2022 series third seminar is held by speaker Dr Karim Engelmark Cassimjee, with the title "Transforming the chemical industry to be sustainable: Can it be done?". The format is 25 minutes presentation and 20 minutes of guided and open discussion with a KTH moderator/host.

Tid: To 2022-05-12 kl 12.15 - 13.00

Plats: Online

Språk: English

Medverkande: Dr Karim Engelmark Cassimjee, Co-founder and CEO at EnginZyme

Kontakt:

Industrial Transformation Research Network

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The Sustainable Transformation Seminars Spring 2022 series is held monthly, usually on a Friday. The seminar series will continue to be online, with the hope they can turn into physical seminars as well in the future.

Seminar description

By unlocking the power of enzymes, EnginZyme is replacing traditional fossil-based manufacturing with a less energy-intensive, cell-free biomanufacturing process that solves one of the fundamental challenges of our time – how to produce better, greener, and affordable products that we use every day.

The chemical manufacturing industry has three key improvement areas for increasing its sustainability. Firstly, the ability to utilise biobased starting materials broadly for commodity chemical products; secondly, lowering energy demands; and finally, reducing the amount of waste produced. By enabling the use of enzymes to replace the catalysts used today these areas are addressed. However, the cost-in-use of enzymes to date has prevented their broad application in chemical manufacturing. Additionally, there is a lack of suitable technology for adapting enzymes for use in modern chemical manufacturing equipment.

So the billion dollar question is, how can EnginZyme achieve its goal of transforming a $5 trillion industry and have a large impact on climate change in the process? Is it even realistic?

About Karim Engelmark Cassimjee

Karim Engelmark Cassimjee. Photo: Tobias Björkgren

Karim Engelmark Cassimjee has a PhD in biotechnology from Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) and conducted postdoctoral studies in organic chemistry and quantum mechanics at Arrhenius laboratory (Stockholm University).

He early found a passion* for enzymes and their potential for solving the commonly unsustainable production of the chemical products used in our everyday lives and that modern society relies upon. He co-founded EnginZyme in 2014 – a company dedicated to replacing the incumbent chemical transformations that rely on heavy metal catalysts and high energy consumption, and produce a lot of bi-products. This is accomplished by developing production processes based on a proprietary and general enzyme immobilization technology applied in flow chemistry set-ups.

In 2021 Karim was selected as the KTH Alumnus of the Year, and EnginZyme as Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum.

*He has later on in life also developed a second passion in rock singing.

Contact: karim@enginzyme.com

Registration

About the Sustainable Transformation Seminars