My PhD project is about …
… finding materials for the green transition. I am a theoretical chemist, so I use quantum chemistry—which is a bit like magic—to calculate catalysts. A catalyst can accelerate chemical reactions. My research aims to help us use electricity from renewable sources to produce, for example, chemicals.
One of these is dimethyl carbonate—a solvent used in paint and lithium-ion batteries, which is greener than conventional alternatives.
To produce dimethyl carbonate, methanol must react with CO. I calculate how to do this most favourably. There is a great deal of fundamental research involved in this work.
The challenge is that methanol and CO prefer to remain separate, so we add electricity to provide the reaction with the necessary energy to bring the molecules together and create an electrochemical reaction. In my research, I simulate how different catalysts, such as gold or platinum, affect the chemical reaction between the two molecules, and how we can achieve this using as little electricity as possible.
The research can contribute to …
… producing chemicals in a more sustainable way. We have benefited greatly from having vast amounts of oil and gas to manufacture everything from plastics to pharmaceuticals, paint, and fuels. But we want to make production more sustainable by using Power-to-X (a process in which electricity is converted into something else).
In the future, green electricity should be able to be converted into, for example, liquid fuels and plastics. The "X" in Power-to-X, in this case, is the chemical dimethyl carbonate.
I get new ideas for solutions when I …
… attend conferences, where I hear about the work my colleagues at the CAPeX Pioneer Centre are doing. I also use what my mother calls the "dishwashing phenomenon." Sometimes you can get so absorbed by a problem, but then while doing the dishes, the solution suddenly comes to you. For me, it works best when I take a walk around campus to get some distance and be surrounded by nature.
It has been a good day at work when …
… I can draw conclusions from the things I've set in motion. When doing computational chemistry, you either get a lot done or you're stuck doing nothing. For example, I recently set up some code that creates a workflow to automatically forward my calculations through the system. What used to take me three months to compute, I can now do in a week and a half.
I take breaks from work when …
… I read. I enjoy seeing the world through the eyes of others, so I read a lot of books, always fiction. I spend a lot of time in front of a screen during the day, so I like opening a book and travelling into another world.
I'm a very social person, so I also enjoy going to pub quizzes every week. We're a core group of friends who go together, but it's quite fluid—and the more, the merrier. We usually win.
I became a PhD researcher at DTU because …
… I enjoy working theoretically and generating new knowledge. It's exciting to discover things we don't yet know—especially in this quantum field. I don't think I would have applied for a PhD if it weren't related to climate, because it's important to me to help make the world a better place and be part of the solution.
As a PhD researcher, I was surprised by …
… how much administrative work fills the day, with many meetings and so on. I also came from the University of Copenhagen, where I was used to my own small research group, so I was surprised by how much larger everything is here at DTU.
In the future, I would like to work with …
… something climate-focused. I'd love not to have mouse shoulder and back pains, but on the other hand, I'm quite comfortable in front of my little computer, and I enjoy the methods I use here. But it should involve data processing with practical applications—preferably something related to the green transition.
