On Monday, April 15, 2024, 24 students from the University of Utrecht (Netherlands) visited our institute. They were students of the third year of bachelor's and master's studies in the field of Chemistry and Molecular Biology at the Institute of Chemistry, who go abroad every year. The aim of the study tour is to inform the participants about chemical research and industry abroad and to open up new possibilities for them. We are glad that we were able to offer these students quality lectures in which we introduced them to the history of our school and our scientific topics (sustainable catalysis, CO2 evaluation and alternative fuel sources), as well as a tour of the institute, where we showed them our technical possibilities and work environment. In conclusion, we would like to highlight the interest with which the students willingly participated in the discussion.

From January 1, 2024, a new institute, the Institute of Sustainable Fuels and Green Chemistry, will be established at the Faculty of Environmental Protection Technology. It is created by the merger of the original Institute of Petroleum Technology and Alternative Fuels and the Institute of Gaseous and Solid Fuels and Environmental Protection. The head of the institute was doc. Ing. Tomáš Hlinčík, PhD. The Institute of Sustainable Fuels and Green Chemistry deals with topics that currently resonate in public and professional discussion, such as: alternative fuels and biofuels, whether gaseous or liquid; implementation of green chemistry principles in the chemical industry or air protection and climate change. We focus in detail on the transformation of biomass and waste plastics into bioliquids and their subsequent hydrogenation processing, the development of heterogeneous catalysts, the application of hydrogen, biogas and biomethane in the gas industry, the capture of carbon dioxide in order to mitigate climate change and the monitoring of air pollution. Furthermore, at the institute, we deal with innovations and optimizations in traditional areas, especially in technology and analysis.

The French Embassy in the Czech Republic annually awards prizes to young scientists for the results obtained during their doctoral studies. This year, Jaroslav Aubrecht from the Institute of Petroleum Technology and Alternative Fuels won the main prize for environmental and climate research MAKE OUR PLANET GREAT AGAIN 2022. The quality of his contribution entitled "Development of Cr-free environmentally-friendly hydrogenolysis catalysts to make ester hydrogenolysis sustainable" was evaluated as the most successful by an international commission composed of members of the academic and industrial spheres. At the award ceremony, which took place in the Buquoy Palace, where the French Embassy in Prague is located, the winner was presented with a financial check as well as a scholarship for a one-month internship at a selected French workplace. The ceremony was attended by the French Ambassador to the Czech Republic Alexis Dutertre, Minister for Science, Research and Innovation Helena Langšádlová, winners of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry and Economics Jean-Marie Lehn and Jean Tirole, and other representatives of companies and universities. In particular, Jean-Marie Lehn tried to share his experience with young scientists during the ceremony and give them additional motivation in their work. Two of our colleagues from VŠCHT, Filip Antončík and Bronislav Jurásek, also placed in other categories.

A team of our great tireless colleagues from FTOP VŠCHT Prague educated and entertained visitors to the Rock for People festival. They devoted themselves to all the wonderful arrivals and answered sometimes less and sometimes more tricky questions. As part of FTOP's participation in the festival, Professor Vladimír Kočí also spoke in the panel "Circular Economy and LCA". The participants learned about the basic principles of the circular economy and the life cycle assessment method, as well as what to watch out for in so-called greenwashing and what are the prospects for our company in terms of sustainability in the future.