In 2015, it realized €12.4 billion in revenues, €2.336 billion of EBITDA, 43% of its sales in emerging high-growth countries, 90% of its sales in markets where it is ranked among the top three manufacturers. With 145 sites, Solvay employs 30,900 people in 53 countries.
Rapid innovation in chemicals and materials calls for innovative integrated approaches that can assess their impacts across different areas. The Safe and Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) framework, developed by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC), offers a comprehensive approach with which to evaluate the safety and sustainability of chemicals and materials across their lifecycle. While SSbD uses various modeling approaches to assess impacts on human health, the environment, and socioeconomic factors, these are often applied independently, hindering a holistic understanding of the complex interactions between these factors and thus the simultaneous optimization of function, cost, safety and sustainability. This review describes existing predictive models and available strategies for their integration to facilitate more comprehensive and holistic chemical and material impact assessments. Specifically, we examine three model integration strategies: consensus integration that combines model predictions for the same impact categories, weighted aggregation that combines different scores in a unified one, and pipeline integration that links models sequentially to create a more unified assessment. Furthermore, we address key concepts related to the uncertainty of model predictions and the applicability domain of models, highlighting how these evolve in integrated frameworks. Insights into the applications of these integration strategies and challenges will allow a more accurate, coherent, and sustainable approach to chemical and material safety and sustainability assessments.
Polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) is a sulfur-containing polymer widely used in high-performance materials. Its stability makes PPS challenging to recycle. Herein, we report a computational study of the catalysis of the oxidation of dimeric PPS (DPS) to its sulfoxide derivative (DPSO) by DszC, a flavin-dependent monooxygenase from the 4S pathway. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations reveal that DPS preferentially localizes near the flavin C4a-hy-droperoxide intermediate within DszC's hydrophobic cavity. Analysis of hydrogen-bond networks around the C4a-hydroperoxide hydrogen and oxygen atoms highlighted five distinct starting structures for hybrid QM/MM Nudged Elastic Band calculations involving intramolecular stabilization with the D-ribitol tail, intermolecular contacts with His391 and Tyr96, and two water-mediated networks. Free energy barrier analysis demonstrated that enhanced stabilization of the proximal oxygen of the flavin C4a-hydroperoxide lowers the proximal O-O bond cleavage barrier. Indeed, the lowest barrier is observed when both His391 and Tyr96 residues are involved in the hydrogen bond network with the reactant. Moreover, a water molecule also stabilizes the transition state via hydrogen bonding with the distal oxygen, yielding a comparable barrier. These findings suggest that enzymatic DPS oxidation by DszC protein is feasible in conditions close to the one used in biodesulfurization (30 degrees C), opening the way of new biodegradation pathway of PPS polymers.
Objetivos Evaluar la efectividad y viabilidad de un programa de formación en Código IAM e Ictus basado en la metodología de simulaciones clínicas in situ (en el propio centro de trabajo). Material y métodos Estudio de implantación mediante metodología mixta. Estudio observacional analítico: cuestionario diseñado ad hoc pre-post (competencias técnicas y no técnicas) y cuestionario Simulation Based Training Quality Assurance Tool (SBT-QA10, analiza la experiencia de simulación). Estudio cualitativo: grupos focales (teoría fundamentada) y observaciones durante el desarrollo de la actividad formativa. Resultados Estudio cuantitativo. 95 respuestas (88% mujeres; 55% entre 31 y 50 años; 27% médicos de familia (MF), 22% enfermeras, 51% otros perfiles profesionales). Contribuye a mejorar los conocimientos técnicos (89,1%), las habilidades de comunicación, coordinación y liderazgo (87,3%), el aprendizaje a largo plazo (92,7%) y la autoconfianza en la gestión de este tipo de emergencias (94,5%). Mejora significativa de la confianza antes y después de la intervención (p = 0,028), serenidad (p = 0,05) y percepción de haber mejorado su formación (p = 0,012). El 84,3% recomienda utilizar esta metodología en futuras actividades formativas. Estudio cualitativo Dos grupos focales (19 entrevistados: 6 MF, 6 enfermeras, resto otros perfiles profesionales, en dos centros diferentes). Mejor valoración: mejora del trabajo en equipo, la práctica del liderazgo y la definición de los roles necesarios para dar respuesta a una emergencia. Realizar la formación en el propio puesto de trabajo permite la familiarización con el entorno y la resolución de aspectos organizativos. Importancia del prebriefing (permite actuar con más calma y espontaneidad, énfasis en el objetivo formativo y no evaluador) y debriefing (reflexionar sobre la actuación y mejorar aspectos necesarios). Algunos profesionales aplicaron los conocimientos adquiridos en los días siguientes (mayor calma y mejor organización). Conclusiones Las simulaciones clínicas in situ aplicadas a la formación en emergencias en AP permiten mejorar el conocimiento y el trabajo en equipo y se pueden aplicar a la formación continuada en otros ámbitos. CEI Fundació IDIAP Jordi Gol. Código CEIm: 23/197-P.
Recent studies show that Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) is out of service 30% of the time, often due to plug failures. The authors reviewed the IEC 62196-1-2022 standard and found that it tests humidity and thermal ageing separately, which may not reflect real conditions. They suggest using the IEC 60068-2-38 method to test both factors together. Simple polyamides like PA6 and PA66 degrade under combined conditions, so High-Performance Polyamides (HPPA) are recommended for better reliability and safety.
Proton Exchange Membrane Water Electrolysis (PEMWE) is a key technology for efficient hydrogen production; however, its reliance on iridium and PFSA-based polymers in the catalyst layer (CL) drives up costs and raises sustainability concerns [1] . Iridium remains the only stable catalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in acidic conditions, and PFSA additives enhance proton conductivity and layer adhesion. While traditional methods with ~2 mg/cm² loadings forming thick catalyst layers that relied on ionomer as catalyst binder, the shift toward ultra-thin (~0.1 mg/cm²) sub-micron layers raises the question of whether ionomers will be necessary for the next-gen layers. Recently in ECS Prime’24 and in our white paper [1] , we demonstrated ionomer-free catalyst layers (ifCLs) with 0.4 mgIr/cm² coated on 25 cm² titanium porous transfer layers (PTL) yielding a -4 mV decay on a standard PTL and a +27 mV improvement on microporous layered version (MPL-PTL) after 500 hours of stability testing hold at 2 A/cm² and 60 °C. In short, the achievement of this performance metric is attributed to the high porosity and surface area of Ir, made possible by the spark ablation-based synthesis of 2–5 nm nanoparticles and their deposition into a micro-patterned layer [1] . Herein, for the first time, we will display the performance of our 0.1 mgIr/cm² ifCLs applied on Aquivion® membranes and PTLs, to realize CCM and CCS approaches, respectively. We will show our findings on the influence of CL loading and thickness on the surface conductivity across different substrates, and present electrochemical performance data from a 4 cm² Fraunhofer-ISE test cell, including polarization curves and impedance spectroscopy in an industrial-scale PEMWE setup operating at 80°C and 2 bar. Additionally, we will discuss the importance of pre-treatment and conditioning protocols chosen for ultra-low loadings and show that optimized nanoporous ifCLs fabricated via spark ablation reach 3 A/cm² below 1.8 V/cell - that is within the targets of the DOE 2026 [2] . We anticipate that our results will engage a broad audience across electrolysis fields as it circumvents the PFSA additives and facilitates precious metal recycling. [1] (a) Irtem et. al., Advanced Nano-Porous Thin Films: Automating Water Electrolysis with Spark Ablation Printing, 2024 ECS Meet. Abstr. MA2024-02 2855, (b) VSParticle B.V. (2025) White Paper, Advancements in scaling PEM water electrolysis with reduced iridium usage, Netherlands [2] Hydrogen Shot: Water Electrolysis Technology Assessment, Energy Earthshots U.S. Department of Energy, 2013 This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under the Grant Agreement No 101091777. © 2023 CLEANHYPRO Figure 1
