Martijn Ruijzendaal (M.D.)

For every produced plastic water bottle, more than 50 liters of CO₂ are emitted into the atmosphere.

Martijn and his colleagues are studying a technology called “plasma” that is able to produce the building blocks for plastics without emitting CO₂. The technology drives chemical reactions using the power of high electric fields instead of furnaces.

However, the behaviour of a plasma reactor is complex, and requires a lot of study and fine-tuning to optimise it. Martijn's research focuses on understanding how ethylene and acetylene, which are key ingredients for plastic production, are formed in a methane plasma reactor. To do this, he uses laser diagnostics to study the composition and temperature of the gas as it flows through the reactor.