Industry cooperation in the field of Life Cycle Assessments
4 April 2013
Empa researchers join Quantis to open new branch in Switzerland
Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, will “spin-out” its service team in the field of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to Quantis, an international leading consultancy in LCA. The transfer will comprise five scientists, the consultancy projects, and will be the basis for a new company branch, based at Empa’s technology center glaTec in the Zurich metropolitan area.
"Joining Technology and Corrosion" laboratory since February 2012. Among other things, his team deals with solder connections, corrosion, local electrochemistry and the design of functional alloys, surfaces and boundary layers. Jeurgens originally became involved in this science because of his fascination with rocks.
Empa, in conjunction with the company Schoeller Medical AG and the Swiss ParaplegicCentre, has won the Innovation Prize at the international Techtextil trade fair. The award went to the jointly developed sheet for preventing bedsores, a solution that is both low-cost and effective for reducing pressure sores in bedridden patients.
Many chemical reactions and chemical processes take place on surfaces or within boundary layers. In order to understand this, the layers must be analyzed in as much detail as possible. We show, how Empa examines microstructures down to the atomic level, using self designed "super-microscopes" – and how these scientific results lead to the construction of new surfaces.
The vision of a society in which each inhabitant of the earth manages to consume only 2000 watts has already been around for 15 years. During this time, there has been a steady increase in environmental awareness in the West. Technology has become more efficient and there appears to be very little standing in the way of a sustainable lifestyle. However, as a study by Empa and the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich now shows, Mr and Mrs Swiss are still a long way from achieving this.
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