Welcome to the Innovation Press Conference 2026 at Evonik, here from Essen. Nice to have you here. Innovation. Well, that actually means renewal, changes, and we've got a lot of new things to present today to you. It starts already with the environment, where you see me here because Evonik has got a new headquarters, and it's the first time that we broadcast live from our new headquarters to the outside world. What we've also got is three new innovation examples for you, and we call them cases. As always, there's not only new things, but there are also tested and proven things. As of now, you can submit your questions. All the accredited journalists can use the conference space and the chat window to submit their questions, and then later on, we'll have a Q and A session, and we will be answering your questions. That has also been the case in previous conferences, and we want to do so today as well. Before going into the different innovation cases, we would like to take a broader look at the Evonik innovation situation and who will be more eligible than the Member of the Board of Directors, Lauren Kjeldsen, who is in charge of innovation. Good morning. Thank you very much. Nice to have you here. Well, I just wanted to ask you how you feel here at the new studio and new headquarters and a new TV studio, but you're the only one who has already broadcast live from here. It's not a premiere for you. Well, it's a great studio, and I had the opportunity with an internal program, a dialogue with the board of directors, to have the experience of this studio already once. Thank you for the invitation once more. Well, internally, we practiced a little bit in order to be sure that it works all okay and it went well. Well, you are in charge of innovation on the Board of Directors, but also for Custom Solutions. It's a very important segment for the region Americas. It's not a small region either. What about your personal and individual resilience when I look at your workload? Well, as I said, while there's a lot to do, resilience is not only an innovation topic, it's also a personal topic. It's a personal achievement that is required. What I try to do every day is to find opportunities in each and every challenge to learn from what we do and to drive our team in order to find solutions for our customers and for our markets. Well, new opportunities every day, identify them. That sounds much like innovation, and that brings us right into the midst of our topic today. We're very happy that you will start to give us a broader idea of the innovation activities. As a native U.S. American, although she speaks excellent German, she could certainly do it in German, but she prefers to present in English. Hello, ladies and gentlemen. I'm very happy to speak with you today about innovation at Evonik, a topic I'm proud to support and the great value we place on it for our future success. First, I'd like to take a step back and give some context. Today, we're operating in a world where uncertainty has become a constant theme. The ongoing crisis in the Middle East and in Ukraine are a few obvious examples. Events like these have led to a growing number of global supply disruptions and high volatility of raw material markets. Our established trade relationships are being challenged, and new collaboration partners and new markets continue to emerge. This constant uncertainty requires companies to rethink how they operate, how they innovate, and how they grow and stay successful. Today, I'd like to show you how we at Evonik are taking on these global challenges and positioning ourselves to generate value for our customers and stakeholders. In today's environment, it is obvious that resilience has increasingly gained importance. A resilient company is one that can absorb shocks, adapt quickly to changing conditions, and recover efficiently from setbacks and emerge stronger by learning and improving from challenges. It's not just about survival, it's about performing under stress and capitalizing on change. At Evonik, we build our resilience on our operational robustness, our strong financial foundation, and our skilled and engaged workforce. Specifically, we build our resilience on our innovation capabilities and our strong customer relationships. Customer centricity is core to our business model. We identify risks proactively and make decisions when information is incomplete. I'll illustrate this with an example. At Evonik, we're no stranger to linking resiliency to innovation. In fact, during the COVID pandemic, we demonstrated our ability to pivot quickly in the face of global uncertainty and emerge stronger through collaboration and innovation with our partners. At the time, we quickly adapted our research and knowledge into applicable products for the changing situation. Because of that, our lipid nanoparticles were able to play a key role in enabling messenger RNA vaccines that helped save millions of lives. We demonstrated that we are capable to get things done. At the same time, we contributed to the resilience of the healthcare system and society as a whole. Today, the challenges are different, but the value of resilience is the same. Like during the pandemic, our ability to be resilient will determine our future success as a company and as a contributor to the world we live in. Along with innovation, resilience at Evonik is tightly connected to sustainability. According to the World Economic Forum's 2026 Global Risk Report, drastic environmental events are seen in the top three long-term risks businesses will face in the next 10 years. This includes extreme weather events and critical damage to our planet's limited systems. At Evonik, we believe it is possible to reconcile growth and prosperity with our planet's finite boundaries. This is the reason why we are working on our product portfolio transformation. Between 2024 and 2025, the revenue share of our Next Generation Solutions rose from 45% to 48%. This is another great step towards a more resilient portfolio of products with a clearly superior sustainability profile. Scalable and economically feasible solutions are our recipe for success. Within the right regulatory framework, the green transformation can become one of the strongest market drivers of our time. As you can see, resilience, sustainability, and innovation are intertwined. What does this mean for Evonik? With our products and system solutions, Evonik is positioned at the beginning of many value chains in a variety of markets. We create value for our customers so that their products become more differentiated, more resilient, or more cost-effective. As a consequence, our innovation power turns into a competitive advantage for our customers or even the players further down the value chain. An example of this is our new plant in China for high-purity hydrogen peroxide. From this material, we're able to support a wide range of important industries, such as solar panels and semiconductor manufacturing. Innovation has always been core to Evonik. It's part of our DNA. Thousands of scientists and engineers in R&D, in engineering, or applied technology work with and for our customers. That is why we continue to prioritize research and development, even in challenging times. Last year, our R&D ratio remained stable at 3%. That corresponds to around EUR 418 million in R&D expenses, even in the face of significant economic headwinds. Approximately 82% of these expenses were directly allocated to R&D embedded in the business units, focusing on platform extensions and efficiency gains. A further 15% funded central R&D, working on adjacent markets and disruptive technology bets. As we stay committed to our innovation power, we need to get even more connected with our markets so we can become faster and even more effective. This is now the moment to allocate resources efficiently and effectively towards our most promising projects. As such, we have focused on three Innovation Growth Areas: advanced precision biosolutions, accelerate energy transition, and enable circular economy. We expect them to generate a combined EUR 1.5 billion in additional revenue by 2032. Within these broad Innovation Growth Areas, we've identified value pockets where we can leverage our innovation power. You're going to see three specific examples in today's presentation. There are solutions already being industrially scaled today. One is our anion exchange membrane, our AEM technology for green hydrogen. This was just yesterday, a new AEM center opened in Shanghai. It's our first one and fully dedicated to this technology and our first one in the region. In addition to advancing the benefits of this valuable technology, this investment is a clear commitment to the global market proximity. We are developing innovations where transformation is happening with the greatest speed. To strengthen resilience, we build production close to demand. This shortens supply chains and increases reliability. Another example is the expansion of our fermentation capacities in Europe. At the moment, we're investing EUR 80 million in Slovakia to further scale up biotechnological production of pharmaceutical ingredients. These ongoing activities highlight how we combine global setup, market proximity, and resilience. Identifying the right opportunities, however, is just one part of the task. We also need to make sure that we make the right use of them. In other words, it's not only about doing right things, it's about doing the things right. That is why we have made changes to our organizational setup. Excellent research alone is not enough. What matters is how quickly we translate lab results into viable industrial solutions. We have aligned our structure to strengthen exactly that. Clear responsibilities, stronger market focus, and faster decision-making across the organization. In just a moment, I'll hand it over to Christian Eilbracht, who's heading our innovation efforts, to explain the details. Before I do that, I would like to say what is truly remarkable about our new setup is that it is significantly strengthening our ability to turn innovation into impact. Ladies and gentlemen, in a world that has become more volatile and uncertain, Evonik will continue to be a resilient and reliable partner for its customers and partners along value chains. Our innovation power and our ability to transform makes Evonik future relevant and the partner of choice. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Lauren, for your presentation. I think we'll have plenty of questions afterwards. We take on board already that innovation sticks to innovation even in difficult times. For you, I've got good piece of news now because you've got a break now while you can relax and can listen to the presentations by our experts, later on we will meet again for the Q and A session and look at the different comments that we get on the internet. The question now is what stems from what Lauren Kjeldsen has just described. How can this innovation power be taken into practice? How can you create real products based on the innovation ideas that you have? Christian Eilbracht, the Chief Innovation Officer, is going to tell you more about it. Lauren Kjeldsen explained right now what it's about, and let us have a deeper look at this, along with a gentleman who has to translate this into practice, Christian Eilbracht, our Chief Innovation Officer. Thank you very much for coming here. Good morning. Hi. For you, as opposed to Lauren, it's a real premiere. It's the first time you are involved in this press conference, and you are in the studio. It's great to be here in this great and marvelous studio. It's great. Great experience. The workers, they promised to be silent, and if there is any noise due to their works, because, we are just moving to this building. As of June 1st, we move officially to this new building and headquarters. Let's have a look at what you have to say about innovation. Since a certain time, you are in charge of this topic, and you achieved many things. I've been very lucky because, I have this job since six months. I assumed other responsibilities in the past and the company since 25 years. That's why it's a bit easier. It's not easy, but it's easier. I like to explain how we implement this, how we want to improve innovation, how we want to focus more on innovation, and how we want to bring innovation into products. Let us begin. Let's look to the presentation of Christian Eilbracht, Chief Innovation Officer at Evonik. Ladies and gentlemen, Lauren Kjeldsen has just explained why innovation is so crucial today, I would like to show you how we organize this in practice at Evonik with focus, structure, and consistency, how we develop ideas into marketable solutions with clear priorities and a strong ability to implement them, innovation does not happen by itself. True innovation is the result of conscious decisions. We have extensively restructured our RD&I organization over the last few months. Our aim was to increase the impact of our innovation work. Around two-thirds of our researchers will work directly within one of our business lines. They will be able to respond even faster to customer needs and develop solutions tailored to those needs. Our principle is clear. Market-oriented development takes place where economic responsibility lies, in our business units, the business lines, we manage cross-business topics and projects with a longer-term focus. This makes us faster and improves the quality of our decisions. Let me explain this briefly. Today, our business lines are responsible for business-oriented research and development, this is where solutions for immediate customer needs are created, this is also where the responsibility for economic success lies. Our group innovation focuses on topics with a longer-term horizon, this is where we pool expertise that benefits all business equally. This includes our Biotech Hub and analytics. Add to this, there are strategic initiatives. A good example of this is our rhamnolipids. Evonik is the first company in the world to produce these biosurfactants. rhamnolipids were originally developed in the business line for a specific application only, cleaning, cleansing. The first major commercial application was a hand dishwasher, dishwashing liquid in Chile. However, we understood quickly that they are capable to do more. They are a technological platform. They drive progress. With our platforms, we drive technologies forward across markets and applications and hand them over to the business units when they are ready for the market. The Evonik Innovation Factory plays an important central role in this. We've established it as an entrepreneurial development unit. Its mission, to bring promising technologies to market. This time constraint makes us even more mindful of how we use our resources, we are focusing all our activities at the Innovation Factory entirely on the three Innovation Growth pillars. As Lauren Kjeldsen said, these three areas are expected to generate an additional EUR 1.5 billion in revenue by 2032, the Evonik Innovation Factory is making a decisive contribution to this. Its five to seven programs are expected to contribute up to EUR 300 million of this. Our benchmark is not more activity, but greater impact. We are now placing even greater emphasis on combinatorial innovation. What does this mean? Well, in ancient Greece, researchers might have leapt out of their bathtubs following a flash of inspiration and rushed through the city shouting, "Eureka!" Those days are long gone. Innovations do not arise in the quiet confines of a study. They rarely stem from a single discipline. That's why we deliberately bring together different partners and areas of expertise, chemistry, biotechnology, digitalization, universities, industrial companies, customers. A good example of this is our collaboration with Abolis and L'Oréal. Together, we combine expertise in yeast, biotechnology, industrial fermentation expertise, a deep understanding of customer needs. This is how new bio-based production routes for specific molecules are created. This is combinatorial innovation practice, this is exactly how we work at Evonik today. We are continuing to pursue this approach through the group-wide Next Markets program. Here, we take an holistic view of the entire value chain. For example is the aerospace and defense sector. Here, high performance materials, long-term availability, reliable supply chains are very important and are key. With our materials expertise and our industrial base in Europe, we contribute to the resilience and technological sovereignty of such security critical value chains. Another key focus is the internationalization of our innovation activities. If you want to work with the brightest minds worldwide, that is what we want to, you have to go to them. That's why we are actively involved in the world's leading innovation ecosystems. Examples include our Cambridge Innovation Satellite near Boston, U.S., the Evonik Skin Institute in Singapore, or the India Research Hub near Mumbai. This international presence strengthens our proximity to markets, to partners, and it enhances our ability to learn. All of this is complemented by targeted digitalization. With our expert system, AIChemBuddy, we combine artificial intelligence and human experience. The system helps our researchers to accelerate the development processes, plan experiments more efficiently, and better understand data. This increases the speed, robustness of our innovation, and improves the quality of decisions. The BoFire software library underlying AIChemBuddy is another example of combinatorial innovation. Evonik took on a pioneering role here at an early stage. We programmed a large part of the code base that is important for use in the chemical industry, and we are now driving development forward in collaboration with renowned companies from the chemical and pharmaceutical sectors. The results and tools that benefit not only Evonik, but the entire industry. We have set the course. Our experience shows that it's not laboratory results that determine the quality of an innovation, but customer satisfaction and success. It is precisely this ability to deliver that you will now see in our technical presentations. Today, we are presenting solutions that have already made the transition from the Evonik Innovation Factory to industrial scale-up. These projects are the result of clear priorities, synergistic collaboration, and a rigorous organizational structure. They demonstrate how we develop innovation in a focused manner, and they show how we use this approach to create sustainable solutions. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for your presentation. Later on, we'll meet you again, during our question and answer session. I'm sure there will be many questions. You said we have to focus more and we have to do it all together, and we need combinatorial innovation. I'm sure we come back to this topic. Thank you very much. Lauren Kjeldsen. She explained that Evonik, even in difficult times, considers innovation as important. Mr. Eilbracht explained how to focus on what to focus on and how to make decisions, because you cannot try out everything. Impossible. There are some constant things, like for instance, biotechnology. Here, Evonik during years and decades, has been building up a huge treasury of competencies. One expert when it's about biotechnology, Stefan Pelzer, he is here. A very warm welcome to you. Yeah, I'm happy to be here again. As I said right before, biotechnology, you are involved in, and you are working in this field since a very long time. Well, it's the third time that I take part in this press conference. I've been here in 2017 and 2024, and I'm happy to be back again. The last time we have been talking about the skin of the human. Now, today it's about another topic. Once you are involved, it's very often about bacteria. Many people say, "Well, blah, disgusting," but you think they are very interesting. What's interesting from your point of view? Well, bacteria are the main cause of many diseases, infection diseases. This is obvious. On this planet, in our life, our life wouldn't be possible without bacteria, for metabolisms, for our health. In addition, we know that at Evonik, we are able to use bacteria in order to develop new substances or in order to use bacteria in the frame of the manufacturing of products. Well, I'm not an expert in this, but let me say my words. Well, we have probiotics and antibiotics. What about this? Well, that describes two principle antagonisms in microtechnology. Anti, this is against the life, very important substances, but they hinder or slow down microorganism. Very important. This brought us a plus in our life expectations. On the other hand, probiotics, for the life, that's microorganisms protecting other microorganisms, for instance, on the gut. How are they related to each other? This is an interesting question. In livestock farming, both are used, probiotics are used. That might be a problem if they promote the existence or the spreading of disease-causing organisms. We developed probiotics to be used, and having a prophylactic effect, and they may reduce the use of antibiotics. That's the way both are related to each other. We explain this much more in detail. As Mr. Eilbracht said right before, today, we are here already in real world, and we left the world of the lab. Well, in South Africa, maybe that's not the first country I think of when it comes to livestock farming. Well, as for innovation, what's important for us and what's motivating us, that's the feedback of the customer, because innovation, it's not just something related to invention. It's about creating something close to the market, marketable. We always get a very important feedback from the market, that generates demand for our products. Ecobiol PRO, not only in South Africa, is strongly demanded. For us, for the Biotech Hub, for the other colleagues, this is extremely motivating. Well, let's have a look at this, how this works with the good bacteria and the bad bacteria, and the products developed in this area, and what this has to do with our life expectation of animals, and an improved quality of products. Today, I would like to show you why and how we developed an innovative probiotic product that helps reduce the unnecessary use of antibiotics in poultry farming. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are one of the greatest global health risks. The WHO even describes it as a silent pandemic. In 2021, more than 1 million people died as a direct result of antibiotic-resistant pathogens. By 2050, around 2 million deaths per year are expected, along with economic damage of up to $100 trillion. You may be asking, what does this have to do with animal nutrition? Quite simply, around 73% of all antibiotics used worldwide are administered in livestock farming. The problem is not potential antibiotic residues in the meat, but rather the use of antibiotics itself. The use of antibiotics therefore selects for bacteria that are resistant. They multiply rapidly and can even pass their resistance on to pathogens. The growing problem of antibiotic resistance clearly shows human, animal, and environmental health cannot be viewed in isolation. That is why the WHO helped establish the One Health approach in 2006. If we reduce the use of antibiotics in livestock farming, we protect not only animals, but also people and ecosystems. To contain the problem of resistance, the One Health approach calls for a more responsible use of antibiotics across professional and systemic boundaries. One important point to understand is that the excessive use of antibiotics in livestock farming is not driven by therapeutic applications alone. Rather, antibiotics are often administered prophylactically, or they are used as antibiotic growth promoters to stimulate animal growth. This use was banned across Europe as early as 2006 and has since been restricted in many other countries. Antibiotic growth promoters continue to be used extensively worldwide. Intelligent alternatives are therefore needed. This is precisely where Evonik comes in. The answer lies in a combination of specific capabilities that very few companies possess in this form. We understand biological systems, we understand bacteria, and we understand chickens. From amino acids to the microbiome, our solutions holistically strengthen animal health and performance. We have been active in biotechnology for more than 40 years and have brought corresponding products to market. The combination of systems understanding, biotechnological expertise, and market experience enables us to develop new products such as Ecobiol PRO, which I would like to discuss today. Probiotics are a particularly suitable alternative to antibiotic growth promoters. Probiotics are living microorganisms. When administered in sufficient concentrations, they can improve the health, performance, and resilience of both humans and animals. In the feed sector alone, probiotics generated global sales of around $4 billion in 2025, with market growth of approximately 7% per year. They can be compared to a Swiss Army knife. Through multiple modes of action, they strengthen the gut microbiome and suppress the colonization of pathogenic germs. Evonik has been marketing Ecobiol for several years. It contains spores of the strain Bacillus velezensis CECT 5940. Ecobiol strengthens the gut microbiome and prevents the spread of pathogenic germs such as E. coli, Salmonella, and Clostridia. One pathogen that causes concern for poultry farms worldwide is Clostridium perfringens. It causes subclinical necrotic enteritis, NE. It typically occurs between the second and fifth weeks of life and damages the intestinal wall of the chicken. This impairs growth or leads to premature death, thereby causing global economic losses of $4 billion-$6 billion every year. To effectively prevent this disease without the preventative use of antibiotics, we need probiotics that are active precisely where the disease develops, in the small intestine. This is precisely what we have achieved with Ecobiol. However, we have now once again made a decisive improvement to our product. Ecobiol PRO germinates much faster in the gut and multiplies there more efficiently than competing products. A study conducted by Oklahoma State University shows an impressive improvement in survival rates and gut integrity with our enhanced Ecobiol PRO. Chickens without contact with the pathogen Clostridium perfringens served as the control group. After 17 days, 100% of them had survived. Among the animals exposed to the pathogen and receiving no probiotic, the survival rate was only 62%. Adding a conventional probiotic to the feed improved survival to 69%. With Ecobiol PRO, a survival rate of 93% was achieved, an improvement of 50%. The intestinal lesions, too, were dramatically reduced with Ecobiol PRO. Ecobiol PRO therefore proves clearly superior, both in terms of survival and disease symptoms. You are probably asking yourself, what is behind this? What is the secret of this improvement? That is what I would like to explain. The foundation of our innovation is that at Evonik, we have a deep understanding of living systems. Our systems understanding enables us to explain why germination and multiplication are crucial. To understand this, it helps to look at the extraordinary life cycle of bacilli. When sufficient nutrients are available, the bacterium reproduces like any other through cell division. In this case, every 25 minutes. When nutrients become scarce, something remarkable happens. Vegetative cells transform into spores, a robust dormant form. We utilize this process in the fermentative production of the product. Spores are heat-resistant and very robust. They are therefore ideally suited for use in animal feed, as the animal feed is pelleted at 80 degrees Celsius. The chicken ingests the spores with the feed. In the intestine of the chicken, the spores then germinate and outgrow into active vegetative cells. Overall, passage through the gut takes between three and five hours, depending on the age of the chicken. To understand exactly when and where the spores germinate, we used our unique poultry gut simulation model, known as DAISy. The results show that the spores first enter the crop where they do not germinate. From there, they pass into the proventriculus and gizzard, where conditions are extremely harsh. A very low pH value and the presence of the digestive enzyme pepsin, the spores survive these conditions without germinating. Germination begins only once the spores reach the small intestine, where the pH is higher because of pancreatic juice. After around 60 minutes, vegetative cells are once again present and can then exert their effect. You may be wondering why germination, the transformation back into active cells, takes place in the small intestine. Quite simply because that is where feed is digested. The decisive impulse is provided by germination triggers, free amino acids such as alanine and sugars that are released during feed digestion. They trigger germination by activating specific receptors on the spore coat. We determined that the production process in particular has an enormous influence on the germination behavior of the spores. We also identified conditions that enable us to produce spores with particularly fast germination. Figuratively speaking, we trained the memory of the spores so that they become active particularly quickly in the intestine. However, feed is not always the same. It differs worldwide from region to region and even between the different developmental stages of the chicken. We therefore tested the germination and multiplication rates of Ecobiol PRO and several competing products in many different feed mixtures from around the world. Ecobiol PRO consistently demonstrated rapid germination and multiplication. All other products germinated and outgrew more slowly or showed greater variation across different feeds. Ecobiol PRO germinates around 46% faster than the average of competing products. This makes our probiotic an important key to healthier and more productive animals, even without the use of antibiotics. Allow me to conclude with a summary. Using the current example of Ecobiol PRO, I have shown you that the scientific understanding of biological systems, the chicken, but also the bacterium, leads to new high-performance products. Our holistic perspective enables us to develop innovative products with reproducible effects. We were the first to determine that the production process has a substantial influence on product efficiency. At Evonik, we can optimize systems for sustainable value-adding use because we understand biological systems. However, these findings are important for not only animal nutrition, but also numerous other applications involving Bacillus-based products, whether in human nutrition, personal care, oral hygiene, agricultural products, or cleaning products. The scope of applications is extensive. Thank you very much for your attention. Well, thank you very much, Professor Stefan Pelzer, for this presentation and insights into the universe of bacteria, microbes, and biotechnology. We're going to see Stefan Pelzer later again in our Q and A session. If you want to submit questions, that's possible anytime. Please use the chat. I've seen that the first questions have already been raised. If there's anything open, please don't hesitate to ask your questions straight away. First, we move out of the universe of biotechnology into the energy world, and there is one substance that is at the focus, and my next guest is very familiar with that. Christian Däschlein. Welcome, Christian Däschlein. Well, good morning. I'm very happy to be here. Well, for you, Christian, it is also a premiere when it comes to the presence here at the Innovation Press Conference, in the studio as well. Normally you work at the Marl site. Yes, that's right. I attend the press conference on innovation for the first time in the studio. I've seen a lot of new things over the past weeks. Well, when I came here this morning, I work at Marl site, I live in Herne, and I had to take the A40, the motorway 40 to come here. It takes a bit longer. It took me an hour this morning. I started off early, and, well, I've come here in a relaxed way without any stress. Well, that's great. We may need some more innovation in the transportation sector. Well, I already said that you are familiar with the energy sector. There is one substance or one material that is at the center of your activities, which is relatively new. It's hydrogen. Hydrogen is not new. It's green hydrogen that is new. Some call it as the champagne of the energy transition. What is it all about with regard to green hydrogen? Well, green hydrogen as champagne of the energy transition, that's a term that I heard frequently. The reason is that green hydrogen, for the time being, is a lot more expensive than the gray or black hydrogen, and I can't use it at industrial scope yet. If you want to be resilient in our energy systems and implement the energy transition as forecasted, as prepared, we need green hydrogen, and I'm going to give you some insights later on. It's one element in order to make it possible to use green hydrogen in the future, and it's electrolysis. Well, we take a look at your presentation, and of course, we meet you then afterwards for the Q&A session. First of all, we are looking forward to seeing how a relatively insignificant thing, a membrane, a sort of foil, may contribute to producing champagne of the energy transition at the price level of water. Many sectors can decarbonize by switching to electricity from renewable energy sources. However, this does not work in certain sectors. These face particular challenges. For example, in the chemical industry and steel production, hydrogen is an indispensable molecule for products and processes. Climate neutral hydrogen will also be needed to transport renewable energy over long distances, store renewable energy over extended periods, and ultimately strengthen the resilience of our energy system. There is thus an enormous demand for climate neutral hydrogen in the industry. The global electrolysis market will grow accordingly. This is precisely what we are seeing, particularly in Asia. However, the major challenge still lies in economic viability. Depending on the location, climate neutral hydrogen is still too expensive. This is precisely where we at Evonik have focused our efforts. In recent years, we have developed a key component that enables more cost-efficient hydrogen production in the first place, our DURAION anion exchange membrane, or AEM. It consists of a high-tech polymer, specially designed for this purpose. Global hydrogen demand is already around 100 million tons per year. Various studies indicate that this demand will increase to between 300 million and 700 million tons by 2050. However, more than 98% of the hydrogen used today is gray hydrogen. This means that it is based on fossil energy sources. Depending on the production method, at least 10 kg of CO2 are generated per kilogram of hydrogen. Based on the 100 million tons cited, this represents a potential saving of 1 billion tons of CO2 today. That corresponds to approximately one third of the energy related CO2 emissions of the EU. This shows that producing hydrogen without generating CO2 is one of the greatest levers for global climate protection. The preferred method for producing climate neutral hydrogen is electrolysis. It uses electric current to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. If the electricity comes from renewable energy sources, it is referred to as green hydrogen. However, green hydrogen has so far not yet been available in sufficient quantities and is more expensive than conventional gray hydrogen. In addition to the currently excessive energy costs, established electrolysis technologies are reaching their limits. They lead to either excessively high operating costs because of limited efficiency, or excessively high investment costs because of the use of precious metals. At Evonik, we have developed a solution for this, our DURAION membrane. It is a high performance anion conducting polymer membrane and the central element of AEM water electrolysis. What makes AEM technology special is that it combines the advantages of existing processes without their disadvantages. In this way, we reduce both investment and operating costs. DURAION is thus paving the way for the cost-efficient production of green hydrogen. Why is AEM technology so superior? First, it operates in an alkaline environment. This allows the use of less expensive materials for the electrolyzer and the electrocatalysts. For example, manufacturers can dispense with costly iridium. This ultimately leads to lower investment costs, and that is a decisive factor for large-scale application. Such applications are being planned and advanced in places such as China, a major market for green hydrogen. Second, our membrane technology enables the efficient production of hydrogen directly under pressure. Because hydrogen is typically used under pressure, this eliminates the need for costly downstream compression stages. Third, AEM electrolysis is highly flexible. It can be quickly ramped up and down. This makes it ideally suited for operation with fluctuating electricity from wind and solar power. Realizing the full potential of AEM technology requires a polymer membrane that is both chemically stable and highly efficient. Until now, such a membrane was not available on the market. Developing it was technically highly challenging. It must combine three contradictory properties. First, it must exhibit very high ion conductivity. This is a measure of electrolyzer efficiency. It must also provide high chemical stability and mechanical strength. This is crucial for its service life. Improving one of these properties typically leads to the deterioration of the other two. Finally, the hydrogen crossover should be as low as possible. This is crucial in preventing hydrogen and oxygen from mixing, otherwise an explosive gas mixture would form. This is not only undesirable, but also safety-critical. This is why we started our development at the molecular level with the monomer itself. As a result, our DURAION membrane best fulfills all the properties required by customers. It has another decisive advantage with regard to regulation. We do not use PFAS in the production of our membrane. Throughout the entire process, we drew on our extensive expertise in electrochemistry, material science, and polymer chemistry. We had already applied this expertise in connection with our biogas technology, SEPURAN. In addition to the technical hurdles, there were market-related challenges during development. Especially in the early stages of a new technology, there are either no users or only very few. There are no standards or norms, and all methods must be developed and established from scratch. This means that it takes time for the market to develop. Because of the aforementioned advantages of AEM technology, we are confident that it will play an important long-term role in the cost-efficient production of green hydrogen and the ramp-up of the hydrogen economy. To help both the technology and the hydrogen economy achieve a breakthrough, we at Evonik have invested in a pilot plant. This enables us to manufacture our DURAION membrane on a large scale. At just under 20 m in length, our coating line for anion-conducting membrane is, to the best of our knowledge, the largest in the world. The recent commissioning of our plant also marks a major milestone for us. We have made the leap from laboratory scale to continuous production. This means that instead of producing our membrane manually in DIN A4 format, we can now manufacture it continuously in a roll-to-roll process and in widths of up to 1 m. The manufacturing process requires absolute precision. At the start of the coating line, a specially prepared polymer solution is applied to a carrier film. Depending on customer requirements, we can optionally embed a fabric reinforcement. The still moist polymer solution on the carrier film passes through various drying elements. Depending on how we adjust the drying conditions, we can further modify the properties of our membrane. At the end of the coating line, the dry membrane is wound onto rolls and delivered to our customers in this form. At the current stage of expansion, we are capable of producing membranes for an electrolysis capacity of up to 2.5 GW. This corresponds to one quarter of the total electrolysis capacity planned in Germany for 2030. How does AEM technology work? The heart of the electrolysis cell is our membrane, shown here in deep purple. The ion-conducting membrane separates the cell into two half cells, the anode side and the cathode side. On both sides of the membrane are the electrocatalysts, shown here in light gray, which enable the splitting of water into hydrogen and oxygen in the first place. In addition, porous transport layers, shown here in dark gray, are required. These transport the gases away from the cell and carry the reaction medium, water, into it. The cell is enclosed on the left and right by metallic bipolar plates. These conduct the electric current into the cell. Many of these cells connected in series form the stack, the central element of the electrolyzer. As soon as current flows, water, H2O, is split at the cathode with electrons, e ¯, into hydrogen and hydroxide ions, OH¯. The hydrogen atoms combine to form hydrogen molecules, H2, which are discharged via the porous transport layer. The hydroxide ions migrate through our membrane to the anode, seen here on the right-hand side of the image, where they are oxidized to oxygen, O2. The electrons generated react once again with water at the cathode. This results in the two reaction products, hydrogen and oxygen, in high purity. Although AEM technology is still at the beginning of its scaling and commercial use, the figures already speak for themselves. Techno-economic studies calculate a potential reduction in investment costs of at least 25% over competing technologies. Of course, there are also competing membranes on the market. Numerous business partners have told us that our DURAION membrane combines the properties required by the market in the best possible way. Our particular strength lies in complete backward integration from the starting molecules to the finished membrane roll. This means that as a chemical company, we can adapt the membrane specifically to customer requirements if necessary. We have developed not only the product, but also the entire manufacturing process, we can produce DURAION on a large scale with consistently high quality. Of course, introducing a new product for a new technology is challenging. We are confident that we will overcome these challenges because we can draw on our experience in the biogas sector. There, too, we have developed a new product family for an emerging technology, thereby contributing to market development at an early stage. As a result, we are now one of the market leaders in the biogas sector. As mentioned, it is currently still considerably more affordable to produce hydrogen on the basis of fossil energy sources. The current geopolitical situation in particular shows how quickly international supply chains can become vulnerable. It also highlights the dependence of Germany and Europe on fossil energy sources. The development of a green hydrogen economy is therefore a question of not only climate protection, but also strategic sovereignty and regional resilience. AEM technology and our DURAION membrane can therefore make a decisive contribution to building a more resilient energy system. Germany and the European Union still hold a pioneering position in hydrogen and electrolysis. This position must now be defended. At Evonik, we are convinced that this can be achieved. That is why we have taken a first decisive step with the investment in our pilot plant. Thank you very much to Christian Däschlein for this presentation related to the topic of the energy transition. Christian Däschlein, he will be available during our Q and A session as well. If there are any questions, you may raise it already now. We pass over to the topic of recycling, and we pass from the topic of gases to another material, to oil, pyrolysis oil. Hendrik Rasch, a very warm welcome to you. I hope it was easier for you to come here this morning. You had some problems with transportation. It's a premiere for you here. There was not a lot of traffic this morning. The studio's completely new, brand new. I'm in charge of recycling plastics, old plastics, but nonetheless, sometimes it's better to see new things and new materials. Recycling old things, old materials, that's the topic. I mentioned the topic of pyrolysis oil. Many people may not know what this means and what it stands for. What is this, pyrolysis oil? It's just the liquefying of plastic. All those who have an oven at home know the function, the feature of pyrolysis for cleaning your oven. Chemical pyrolysis, it works without excluding oxygen. Instead of burning things, you are liquefying it, and that's how you generate a new raw material to use in later subsequent manufacturing processes. Here, now we refer to big industrial equipment like steam crackers and similar equipment. The process of pyrolysis might be easy on an oven in your kitchen, but on a large scale, there might be other problems with dirt. How Evonik can help to find solutions, Mr. Däschlein will explain to you now. Used plastics are not waste, but rather a raw material. Nevertheless, enormous quantities are still lost, mainly through incineration and landfill disposal. As a result, there are increasing political initiatives worldwide to bring more plastics into a circular economy through recycling. More on that later. How big is the problem? Based on current assumptions, more than 400 million tons of plastics are produced every year. Yet today, recycled raw materials are reused for less than 10% of this amount. A large proportion is therefore not recycled. That is an enormous waste of resources. One promising technology for recycling even heavily contaminated and mixed plastic waste is pyrolysis. The starting material consists of plastic flakes like these. In the pyrolysis process, the long hydrocarbon chains in the plastic are thermally broken down and converted into a liquid oil, pyrolysis oil. In principle, this oil could serve as a raw material and replace petroleum-based raw materials or fossil naphtha. However, the oil contains various impurities because of food residues, mixed plastics, and additives. This means it cannot be used directly in a steam cracker as a replacement for petroleum-based raw materials. European steam crackers are multi-billion euro facilities that have been optimized for specific naphtha qualities over decades. The more precisely the pyrolysis oil matches the respective steam cracker, the higher the yield. This both reduces environmental impact and improves economic viability. The central challenge is therefore figuring out how to upgrade contaminated pyrolysis oil so that it can once again be used on a large scale as a basis for new plastics. We at Evonik began addressing this question more than six years ago. Our advantage was that although we do not operate pyrolysis plants ourselves, we are specialists in processing raw materials for petrochemical applications. We therefore have extensive expertise in processing naphtha products for use in steam crackers. Our products have long been used to selectively remove impurities from oils in petrochemical processes. These substances, called adsorbents, specifically bind impurities. The process began with intensive analysis, comprehensive literature reviews, conventional laboratory testing, and extensive experimental series. This made it clear which approaches might be used to effectively separate the various impurities with the aid of adsorbents. What exactly are these impurities? Our analyses have shown that pyrolysis oils are more commonly contaminated with chlorine compounds, other halogens, silicon, heavy metals, and nitrogen compounds. These unwanted substances cause considerable problems in petrochemical plants. For example, they can damage catalysts, cause corrosion in plants, and impair product quality. Without targeted processing, the use of pyrolysis oil would therefore remain limited to small dosages. Our colleagues at the site in Little Rock, Arkansas, took on the challenge of developing a tailored solution for this. As a first step, they focused on adsorbents that had worked well in the purification of conventional oils. However, it was not possible to sufficiently bind the organic chlorine compounds in this way. They were too big for the cage, as the colleagues put it. Because of their sheer size, these molecules did not even reach the binding sites of the adsorbents. The decisive step was to combine catalytic and adsorption functions in a single product. This combination converts the organic chloride compounds into simpler inorganic chlorides. These are easier to bind and can therefore be reliably removed. This innovation is now marketed under the product name Purocel 505. Here is a schematic illustration of the purification process using Purocel 505. The pyrolysis oil is fed into the top of the adsorption vessel. When the hydrocarbon chains contaminated with chlorine come into contact with our Purocel, the chlorides are separated off in a catalytic reaction and adsorbed. This allows more than two-thirds of the contamination to be removed. However, the right chemistry is not the only important factor for operators of pyrolysis plants. What matters is that solutions can be integrated easily into existing facilities. It was therefore clear to us, for our innovation to be particularly successful on the market, it had to work without major investments or lengthy conversions and shutdowns. That is precisely why we developed our Rocket System. This modular preassembled purification unit can be integrated flexibly into existing infrastructure without major conversions or lengthy shutdowns. This lowers investment costs, reduces operating costs, and facilitates the adoption of pyrolysis oil. This system uses Purocel 510, a product based on the aluminum ore bauxite, which is also recyclable. In applications with particularly demanding requirements, an additional hydrotreating step follows. In this process, the remaining impurities, here, alongside the chlorides shown in yellow or silicon shown in green, are removed via the gas phase through the use of hydrogen at high temperatures. This makes the oil more stable and thermally robust. That is a prerequisite for use in steam crackers that produce raw materials such as ethylene or propylene, but now with the attribute recycled. The recycled content in the plastic product is verified and certified through mass balance accounting. Evonik deliberately positions itself in chemical recycling as a systems partner. We do not offer a single solution for a special case, but rather a modular system for different plant sizes and process requirements. You are already familiar with the Rocket System. The adsorbents are ideally suited for use in smaller facilities. Alternative purification options, such as hydrogenation, would involve excessively high investment costs and would not be economically viable. For larger scale facilities, we offer two complementary technology solutions. First, the efficient removal of selected impurities, and second, integrated solutions such as hydrogenation catalysts. This is then economically viable. This means Evonik is well-positioned to meet the growing demand for chemically recycled materials. Some of you may now be wondering where these growing markets actually are. Is recycling only a European topic? Clearly not. Both the U.S. and large parts of Asia have launched legislative initiatives to advance chemical recycling. For example, China recently launched major programs to expand plastic recycling. By 2030, 20 million tons of plastic are to be chemically recycled each year. In the U.S., alongside voluntary commitments by industry, there are various legislative initiatives that rely on chemical recycling. In 2025, the EU introduced regulations for not only single-use plastics, but also the automotive sector. These stipulate that from 2032 onwards, new vehicle types must contain at least 15% recycled plastic. From 2036, this will increase to at least 25%. Alongside mechanically recycled materials, chemically recycled materials can also be used here. For example, in safety critical applications such as brake lines. What does this mean for industry and society? First, there is the effect of sustainable innovation. We replace fossil raw materials with existing materials. This benefits the climate because plastic waste is not incinerated and less crude oil needs to be extracted. In addition, it strengthens the resilience of our industry. In the coming years, steam crackers will come under economic pressure because of declining fuel consumption. However, they are indispensable for the production of starting materials for medicines, plastics, and everyday materials. That is why it is important to preserve them. With the growing feedstock stream from pyrolysis oil, the petrochemical industry gains access to a defossilized petrochemical feedstock stream. In recent months, we have also seen how strongly the global economy depends on individual regions for certain raw materials. We could become more robust and independent by supplementing fossil raw materials with materials already circulating within our own economy. This makes us less dependent on fluctuating imports and uncertain supply chains. Of course, the solutions of Evonik alone will not achieve this. They are an example of how sustainability and resilience can be considered and implemented together along key value chains. Well, you now you've seen our three business cases from innovations at Evonik. Thank you, Hendrik Rasch, for the last presentation. Now we get together again with the entire innovation power and competence of Evonik. Thank you for being back for our Q and A session. Now it's time for questions. We've received some questions, but I can only challenge you to submit additional questions that we put to our experts. That's why we're here. We've got LinkedIn and YouTube as well, where this event is also streamed. If you have questions on these different channels, please don't hesitate to submit. As I said before, we've already received some questions and, while that was to be expected, Lauren, that there are some questions to the Board of Directors and looking at the entire innovation segment. Antje Höning, Rheinische Post, has come up with the question: what's the percentage rate of F&E investment, R&D investment goes into Germany, and in which country you invest most? Thank you for the question. Of course, as a company based in Germany, a large share of our R&D investment is allocated to the German sites. We are a global player, and we play in the area of transformation. Transformation is something that challenges us everywhere in China, in the U.S., we've seen some examples today. We do that specifically in ecosystems that drive these changes, these technologies. We need to be on-site. We need to be in those regions and countries. Christian, maybe you can explain a bit more in detail what it's like in innovation. I would like to hear your echo. Germany remains one of our centers or the core piece of innovation, and that is going to continue in the future. In Germany, we've got an incredibly strong scientific setting that we can use, alongside the fact that we have a very strong team in Germany and Europe that we want to be building our activities on. All the topics come into Europe, they're based on the European legislation, make us fit for the future. They give us some impulse that will then be translated into growth and innovation. We've seen, Research Development &I, that the market is not in Germany, but we've developed it in Germany, so we can transfer the technologies into other regions in the world. That is a point that needs to be taken into consideration. That's why it makes sense to sustainably do Research and Development here in Germany. Another point that was mentioned and that I would like to support is we need to make sure that in other ecosystems, we remain close to the market. It is internationalization, where we need vicinity to the markets. Market and technology need to be on-site. Therefore, we have expanded our activities into different hubs. We've built up new hubs. We just mentioned Mumbai in India, and we've got the hub in Boston, where we go deep into new ecosystems that again, generate growth. We need to be close to our customers, close to the decision-makers, and that leads to growth. Then, of course, it strengthens the economic side of Germany that is crucial to us as a consequence. We need to be active in both elements, need to find a good balance. I don't want to talk about numbers, but it needs to be clear to everyone that we have and will have a strong basis in Germany. In order to answer your question, this was the case in the past, this is the case today, and going forward, we see that this is going to be the case in the future as well. Well, I hope it's a good answer to Madam Höning from Rheinische. FAZ, Jonas Jansen. He intensely studied the press review that we published, and he said, well, here I read that the researchers build upon internal and external knowledge within Evonik, and at a later point in time, they start the innovation process. Christian, I think it's a question for you. Are you using AI? The critical second question, could we assume that this means that you are not interested in very expensive fundamental research? Well, that's three questions. Let me start with the last question. Fundamental research is a core element of our research competence that we want to develop further. We do so differently than in the past. It's not about withdrawing from deep tech, but we look at it differently. We want to do things differently. We've seen the example of the Innovation Factory, where we step in later, but we still do deep tech. We start at a higher level of technical maturity because we hope and we are sure that we can then scale up things faster. It is a further development based on a different level of maturity where we enter into the process. We still have deep tech, which is still part of our DNA, of the R&D community. You see that when you look at different examples as well. Of course, there is the expert community, the fellow community that is connected within the European, the German science community, in the scientific landscape and environment. Many of these scientists work as professors at universities and colleges. We want to combine our knowledge expertise in a combinatorial way and use it in order to get impulses for our development. For R&D, once more, we step in later at the point in time when we know that we can scale it up. That is a topic of a de-risking approach rather than a withdrawal from deep tech. There's an additional element that I would like to mention, that means that in particular via our venture capital activities, which are also crucial, a permanent element in our activities, we try to recognize and identify trends in the market and ideas early on. We use the combinatorial aspect once more in order to develop new solutions and bring them in the market. When does something is transferred into the Innovation Factory? When we get a higher level of maturity, or when we see a larger opportunity to have an industrial realization of that. Second question, AI. Well, AI, the role of AI in what we do. We separate AI from the reduction of staff. We want to be faster, better. We want to build up expert systems. I mentioned some of them. There are others that have an even broader approach, CogniSphere, for example, that we are advancing within the company, within the business, in order to make tech faster, better, and create expert systems in order to be more efficient at a broad level and to scale things up faster. AI should not have and will not have any influence on headcount. First question, are we entirely immune as our R&D organization, as a research organization when it comes to reduction of headcount? No, of course not. Let us note once more, and Lauren will probably confirm it, we take note of the fact that more than EUR 400 million, EUR 420 million that we want to spend into Research and Development, and that does not contain the important part in all the businesses, which in their business application, close to the sale function, also contribute to innovation. Let me take another question because it fits perfectly, and that's exactly the point that was just mentioned. Alex Scott from Chemical & Engineering News asked, we transferred that English question into German. It's directed to you, Christian. Thank you for your presentation, we would like to pass that question on to Lauren now. AI, the role of AI for innovation at Evonik. It's not only scientific analysis, but also to support innovation decision-making. The company finds in the third year of a program to reduce thousands headcount. It's even 2,000 headcount that Evonik wants to reduce its headcount by over a period of three years. Alex Scott asked specifically how many of these posts are in R&D, how many headcount reduction in R&D, and will AI enable you to cut headcount? Well, taking the bigger perspective, we are under pressure. The market economy is not fun right now, that is not only true for us as Evonik. It's true for many markets and many supply chains and many value chains. We find that we are under pressure. Of course, it's a lot simpler to invest if there is some tailwind, when there is sufficient money that flows into different directions and that helps you to allocate it into different areas. The only way to grow is to advance innovation, to drive innovation. We know that we need to do that more specifically with our investment, with our decision-making, and we place, we allocate our funds into the right opportunities. Of course it is not only even in innovation, it's a real hard time. We need to be highly resilient. We need to be very smart in our decision-making, and AI supports it. It supports our decision-making, which gets faster. It prepares the ground for more options, and we see that in many areas in Evonik. Not everywhere. I can't say that our entire innovation chain is driven by AI at 100%. We see that in different bubbles, so to speak, that AI plays a role, and we see in what way AI supports us to find faster ground for a new biotech synthesis, for example. We need to be competitive with people, with colleagues within competition, and we need to use AI as the competitors use AI. We need to keep working on that. We're not immune to the environment and the macroeconomics. We need to be fit for the future, and we need to be able to say no. We go more into the direction where we can move things on site with areas where we are relevant, when we can make a difference. Thank you, Lauren. Christian, that makes your life easier if it was not true for innovation, but it's part of the entire universe. And it's part of the entire business. Jonas Jansen has got a follow-up question regarding the numbers. I think, Christian, you should take that question. Regarding the EUR 300 million share of the EUR 1.5 billion, is that the same amount that you had allocated also for Creavis, or is that an increased amount? The EUR 1.5 billion had already been communicated. That was a number that was already known to the markets. Let me try to give you some insights. Creavis before had no it was about new products in new markets. The risk profile therefore was a different one, and therefore former Creavis has not been allocated any expectation regarding revenue, because the development cycles were clearly longer. With the new approach in the Evonik Innovation Factory, to be faster in the market, to say that within five years we want to have viable products for the market, that increases the aspiration, the claim to the Evonik Innovation Factory to contribute to the revenue. The EUR 300 million is new. It's an additional promise to grow, which is to be generated via the Evonik Innovation Factory. Will that lead to a scenario where we say that we want to go beyond the EUR 1.5 billion, EUR 1.5 billion + EUR 300 million? I would rather say no, because we find ourselves in difficult, troublesome times together as a team at Evonik. We need to make an effort in order to meet our growth expectation by 2030, this EUR 1.5 billion. Therefore, the EUR 300 million help to be more resilient, and I would like to focus on that term once more, to make a contribution to that overall EUR 1.5 billion in the three areas that were mentioned. That implies, and this is true, that all the programs that we're currently running at the factory, they have a direct 100% link with the Innovation Growth Areas, IGA. This is the ones that account for the EUR 1.5 billion. That's the energy transition, advanced biotech, and the third area that was mentioned as well. With all three Innovation Growth Areas, we want to have the leverage for this EUR 1.5 billion and one contribution will be the Evonik Innovation Factory. Thank you very much. In a short moment, we will come to the specific questions, but first I pass on to Lauren once more. Andy Noël, chemicalE SG asked about China. China develops very quickly into a power center for innovation at low cost. How can Evonik protect their customers? The question to both of you. Then there is a follow-up question regarding corporations, the combinatorial innovation that we take afterwards. China has a strong chemical industry as well. We have been investing during a long time in a geostrategic strategy. We are producing there in the Americas, a third here in Europe, a third in the U.S., a third in Asia. We are a part of this very strong and efficient chemical industry in China as well. There are interesting and very intelligent and smart people everywhere in all the countries. Their teams are working differently. Yesterday, for instance, we have been talking about carbon capture, required in the U.S. by the U.S. policy. They have their Inflation Reduction Act. For an ecosystem like this, we take this into account, or we talk about hydrogen. Here we made a clear statement. The Chinese state made a clear statement. They wanted to invest in this, and that's why we go there. I would say that makes us stronger, that makes us competitive, because the intensity is the same everywhere. It's not always fun, but it's our job and our task. We are here in Europe, and I'm grateful to see that there is intense competition. Evonik in this process of transformation will play an important area. No fears about China and working there, but a smart approach as for China. Let me give you an example in order to understand what it means, and how we will work with the Evonik Innovation Factory. We have a lithium ion battery center in China, cooperating with our partners and customers. We developed this to the extent that this year now we can translate this in concrete business. This shows that the impulsions coming from the regions are perceived by us. That's why this might make an important contribution to our business. This refers to this lithium ion battery center. Question from Andy Noël as well, as for consolidation and cooperation. He says, it's said that Europe in the future will have less chemical industry. There will be a consolidation and a stronger cooperation between different industrial companies. To what extent a cooperation like this is realistic? Evonik, for instance, along with DSM, both companies at a certain moment of time separated from each other and went their own way. I would say that's a good example. This partnership between DSM and Evonik was challenging. A new application, a new market, a different value chain. We tried to make a solution for the future out of it. We did this together. GV is running well. I would say, we may have the technology. Another one has an entrance and access to the market, and we should bring or can bring both things together. Then we have a chance to bring a technology faster to a marketable solution and to the market. I think we need more of this instead of less, as Christian said before. We need our academic expertise as well in terms of technology. We need to develop prototypes faster, and we have to scale up things faster. We need these ecosystems. I think Veramaris, this is a good example. Combinatoric innovation on the one end and the pressure of consolidation does not exclude one each other. No. Before coming to the three specific technical presentation, a question from Mark Romuald from CHE Manager. He just came back from the U.S., Röhm, former part of Evonik, opened their business there, MMA business, and they implemented LiMA technology there. That was a topic addressed here at our innovation press conference. This kind of an innovation lasts many years. You have to make use investments. Evonik, will they have the financial means to do this kind or to promote this kind of innovation? Second question, what kind of support by state subsidies for R&D pilot plants would be needed in order to develop sustainable technologies in Germany? Just to comment, as for Röhm and LiMA, I've not been inside, unfortunately, at this inauguration, my congratulations to Röhm. It's really challenging, an investment like this. They did it, and they achieved it, and that's another good example that shows that in these times, you have to keep on investing. I would say that at Evonik, what do we talk about? We talk about a budget, a budget for innovation. We talk about innovation, but it's always related to CapEx, capital investment. I would say there are less investments in existing, already existing technologies because macroeconomics does not permit this. Utilization of capacities in theory of 80%, you do not have to invest immediately in the next new equipment and system. Once it is about a new technology, you have to scale it up. Let me give an example. Today, we still have EUR 700 million-EUR 800 million of investment in CapEx. This is not only for maintenance of existing technology. This is invested in new technology as well. We will keep on driving this and focus on this. It's about existing technology, but it's about new technology, and it's about scaling up new technologies as well. That's what we see, and there are several examples. Our biotechnology plant in Slovakia. We will expand this plant further. In 2024, we had the first rhamnolipids production there, and we'll build up our competence center further. There are further investments to be done in order to support next generation carbon technology. Perfect example. We have been talking about this at our innovation press conference, well, that's something we did from the lab to a big industrial plant here in Europe and industrial production. Just to complete this, what we want to do, I tried to explain it in the frame of my presentation. At an early stage, we want to see, can we scale up? Once we see we can scale up, we'll have and make available CapEx. We'll have this idea at an early stage. We'll implement this at an early stage, later on, this will help us to provide the needed financial funds because we want to grow, and that's a decisive point. Second point, we've been talking about the topic of funding several times, we know that funding is essential at an early stage when you build up pilot plans, which are not profitable at this moment of time. We have our own team within R&D, and they are in charge of the topic of funding as well. They have the expertise in terms of funding. We do not have only expertise in R&D in this area, but in funding as well. We know where to apply for subsidies, state funding, and that's something to be considered as well. I think Mark Romuald want to know how about the side of the offer and not only the demand. You always can do more. Now you may relax and have a break because now we can pass over to the topics of the three presentation. Christian, let me begin with you and the membrane technology. First technical question addressed to you by Olaf Ritter, Dow Jones. Evonik, how do they plan to do the go-to market for the AEM? Is there any contact with ThyssenKrupp, other industrial companies, ABB, or is there any potential buyer for this technology already? Very important question. Currently, we are introducing this into the market, but I cannot mention in detail our partners. What I can say is that globally, we are in contact with all the relevant players and stakeholders, with the big ones, the well-established ones. We are in contact with startups, smaller companies, new companies, and with many of these companies, we are mounting first demonstration projects in order to check the performance of the system. It looks quite well. Right in the middle of market introduction, you may buy the membrane already. If you want to do so, you can do so. Well, let's see what the press and media representatives think about this idea and suggestion. Well, the three examples mentioned, they are strongly related to innovation, and there is always the matter of being close to the market and making it marketable. Lou Reese has a question, pipe and profile extrusion. Please, how about your time planning, the timeline up to the commercialization? Currently, there is still a pilot plant, how about the next step and when the next steps will be done? Can you give us some further explanation? Well, we have clear targets. For this year, our targets are very clear, our sales targets are very clear. The market ramp-up for the hydrogen economy, this is still ongoing. Looking into the future, it's not that easy. It's always looking into a crystal ball. All those working in the field of hydrogen, we hope strongly that this will ramp-up strongly in the next two or three years. Second question, the pilot plant. Our pilot plant currently allows us to produce high volumes, up to 2.5 GW of electrolysis performance. If you calculate this per electrolyzer volume per square meter, it's a lot. This will drive our activity during the next years. The next step for us will be horizon two, three, four years, then we'll do the next investments and expand this business further. There is another very concrete question. You have been talking about capacities, there's a gentleman from Rautenbach. What's the maximum pressure for the membrane? That's a very good question. I just tried to explain it in the frame of my presentation. As I said, hydrogen is always used under pressure, if I do not produce under pressure, then I need further compression stages. That costs further money. That's something I want to impede. What I can say is that, in the last year, during thousands of hours, we tested the membrane under a pressure of 35 bar. We did it during shorter times with higher pressures. Well, last year, 35 bar during thousands of hours, and it worked out perfectly. That sounds great. Let's pass over from the membrane if there's no further question regarding the membrane at the moment. I suggest to pass over to the topic of the pyrolysis oil. Hendrik, Willem Dirks has another question, or Willem Dirks. I do not know how to pronounce his name. Evonik, do they work on the treatment and recycling of plastics before pyrolysis? Density of IR, infrared, and so on. Well, we have to understand that Evonik, as a chemicals company, consider ourselves as being an enabler. We are not a recycling company. We enable our customer, the recycling industry, to produce better products, to remove impurities in a better way. We do not have any direct recycling activity, well, we need a common understanding. We need to know what kind of flow of materials we have, pure, clean materials, in order to optimize flow of materials. I know very often we talk about ecosystems, circularity, very important. Once you develop a product, once you design a product, you have to think already about the end or take into account the end of its life cycle. Yeah, Willem Dirks has another question. Pyrolysis oil. Many companies have different properties, have different materials. This process, can it de-treat any kind of materials, including VACS-containing materials? Good question. We tested many pyrolysis oils. That's due to the fact that out there in the market, there are different technologies. I think during the next years, the market will be consolidated, well, you'll have different technologies, different raw materials, and according to this, you will have different pyrolysis oil. We have a kind of a toolkit. We provide different solutions, and the effectiveness for different impurities like halogens, this must be considered. Well, you have to know the properties of the different materials. Another question from India, Shyamala Shastry, LinkedIn, Thermax Limited. Pyrolysis, is that a continuous process, or is it possible to use it as a batch? Well, when looking at the pilot systems, these are batch processes, simply because we want to try and look at the different iteration stages to make the process more efficient. From the pilot plant to the commercial plant, there will be a permanently continuous process, which means the different technologies are aligned to one permanent process. As a result of the impurities in the raw materials, you also need to provide for some shutdown. These 8,600 hours that we know from lubrication systems cannot be used for pyrolysis as well. We think between 7,000 and 8,000 hours of operations per year will be feasible. Then to the economic efficiency in the market, there are some questions here that is always interesting. Beatriz Santos from Sustainable Plastics asks, what is the demand like for your H74 pyrolysis oils? What can you tell us about the demand? Well, we have been looking into the market for the past five to six years when we realized that the narrative, that the politics goes into that direction. This year, we are strongly supported. Independently of the geopolitical situation, there are clear targets for the packaging market, for the automotive market that have been communicated, we talk about the amounts of more than 10 million tons of recycled materials and plastics by 2040. It's a big cake for mechanical and chemical recycling, very early we have positioned ourselves in these markets. We tested different oils, we know about the variability, the problems that the businesses have with that, and our portfolio is rather broad. As for hydrogen, we see that these targets will take effect in 2030, 2032. This is now time for investment. Therefore, it's important that we are known, that our targets are understood, and that we can contribute in the different systems that are being set up. There's a second question from Beatriz Santos, which moves away from your direct topic, or maybe it's Christian who should answer. Regarding partnerships, we come back to the combinatorial innovation. How does your partnership with Oerlikon Barmag in the area of chemical recycling of PET develop? Would you like to take the question? It develops slowly. We would love to speed it up. PET recycling is a very difficult environment, commercially difficult environment. It's a challenge, if I may leave it at that. We've outlined that early on, that you need to focus on what is in high demand, and you need to focus on market developments in order to make sure that you don't develop something away from the market. Let me take a look at my questions. There is one open question here popping up to Stefan Pelzer via YouTube. I don't know who has submitted the question. Two years ago, you talked about the importance of microbe biotopes. Ecobiol is just one type. Wouldn't it be better to have a dual system or something that is more effective? Excellent question, and certainly a possibility to approach the area alternatively. We have generated so much knowledge via Ecobiol and Ecobiol PRO regarding the mechanisms of impact that we're always surprised how manifold that Swiss Knife is when it comes to the microbiomes and to put them into a well-balanced health situation that is positive health situation. It's by pushing out pathogen microorganisms via digestion of certain substances that is more effective. We're quite happy about the different properties and capabilities of our Ecobiol and Ecobiol PRO, which acts even faster. It can never be excluded that going forward, a consortium approach goes into that direction. Of course, if you read our press releases thoroughly, you know that we also prepare activities in this area and get funding for that. We are very happy with Ecobiol PRO. We get positive feedback, as mentioned when we introduced the topic. Our customers tell us that this is a new level of quality, a new level of our understanding regarding the probiotics in combination with the microbiotics in the intestines, and that, of course, has a positive impact on the performance of chicken. That's outstanding. If you already tell us that there is going to be something else coming up, then you will also participate in the fourth edition of our press conference on innovation because there will be results from biotech as well. There is another question on AEM. Let me quickly check the question from France. Abubakar Abdulmalik from the University Environment, a student from this area, AEM electrolysis has historical challenges regarding the robustness of membranes at high-density currents. Can you give us some insights into the materials that you use in order to prolong the life cycle of your membranes? Can you compare that to the current state of affairs regarding the PEM technologies? Well, that's a very broad question. Well, no, it's a simple question, actually, but I can't give you any details, of course. Of course, when developing the membrane and the chemicals and materials, we have really made sure that we can cope easily with those challenges. Life cycle, stability, electrochemical performance of the membrane, these have been the main challenges regarding the analysis. As I said some years ago already, we started with our polymer know-how, at Evonik's, and specifically, we developed a system that has all of these properties. But what it is chemically in detail, well, unfortunately, I can't give you any details on that. Well, this is the student curiosity that we find here very appropriate, but of course, there are some things we can't disclose. That's the knowhow that you need to keep confidential. We talked about that earlier. I think all questions have been submitted and answered. It was a wide portfolio and broad portfolio of questions. Thank you very much to all of you that you have presented your different topics and that you've been here for answering questions. Thank you to the two of you for answering so many questions after your short presentation. Thank you for attending this press conference on innovation. It seems that there are no further questions. Thank you very much to all of you. Thank you very much to anyone who has contributed to the success of this event, our editor-in-chief, Mr. Kaltwaßer, but many helping hands behind the scenes and backstage. It was great fun. I think it worked fine. I hope you've enjoyed it. To the journalists out there, thank you very much for your time and for attending this press conference. We're very, very curious to get the media feedback that we will see. Of course, with our communication teams, we're always ready to help you out if you've got additional questions, if there's anything that's not clear, or if you need further information, we will pass you on to competent minds. We've got plenty of experts here at Evonik. Therefore, my recommendation to all of you, strengthen your personal resilience as well. I wish you a good week. Have a good day. Goodbye from Essen.