Arjen Dijkgraaf interviewed Bert Weckhuysen on December 2, 2025, the scientific director of the ARC CBBC consortium, and asked his opinion about how the chemical industry can keep pace with the rapidly changing world. In this interview, he highlights the urgent need for the chemical industry to reinvent itself in response to environmental challenges. As global demand for sustainable practices grows, Weckhuysen stresses the importance of shifting focus from traditional catalysis to more holistic environmental solutions, such as tackling COâ‚‚ emissions, PFAS contamination, and microplastics. He calls for chemists to broaden their perspectives beyond carbon, emphasizing the need to address all elements in the periodic table to foster a truly circular economy.
Weckhuysen also discusses the ongoing efforts at ARC CBBC to develop sustainable building blocks for materials that could one day replace fossil-based products. The initiative, backed by universities and industrial partners, aims to drive groundbreaking research in catalysis, organic synthesis, and process engineering. Looking forward, Weckhuysen envisions a future where circularity is deeply integrated into product design and manufacturing processes, ensuring that materials can be recycled sustainably. This vision includes not just carbon but other elements such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur, which are critical to developing more environmentally friendly technologies.
This interview is part of a special edition of Chemisch 2 Weekblad (C2W | Mens & Molecule), entitled “Refinery of the Future“.
The full interview is available here.