Heike Sekulla
PhD Researcher
Heike Sekulla is a doctoral researcher in the Business Chemistry group, supervised by Dr. Sandro Olveira. Her research focuses on inorganic chemicals and the development of systematic models for global inorganic chemical production, approaches that move beyond single-process datasets toward transparent, scalable methods applicable to globally traded commodity chemicals. Current project focuses is on sulfuric acid.
Keywords: Inorganic chemicals · Generative LCI methods · SO₂ emissions · Global material flows · Defossilization
Short CV
| Since 2024 | PhD Researcher, Business Chemistry, University of Zurich |
|
2024 |
Research exchange, business chemistry groups at Ulm, Regensburg and Münster |
| 2022 |
Exchange Semester, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology |
| 2018 - 2023 | Bsc and MSc Business Chemistry, University of Zurich |
Current Projects
Global Environmental Impact of Sulfuric Acid Production
Partners: University of Zurich · ETH Zurich | Active 2026–2027
Sulfuric acid is produced at over 250 Mt per year, making it the world's most-produced industrial chemical. Despite this scale, its environmental footprint is poorly characterised: existing databases show health damage estimates varying by a factor of up to 200 for the same product, with non-transparent and conflicting methodologies. This project develops a transparent, regionalized global model of sulfuric acid production from first principles and in doing so, establishes generative LCI methods applicable to other inorganic commodity chemicals.
CO2 factor accounting and proxie estimation in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry
(Active 2025–2026, Master's Thesis Project)
This project examines how chemical and pharmaceutical companies build and govern emission factor libraries for carbon accounting, and which trade-offs shape their design. Based on a structured literature review and an empirical survey of industry professionals, it identifies best practices in EF sourcing, validation, documentation, and workflow integration. The findings are distilled into a lightweight framework designed to help small and medium-sized chemical companies establish and maintain their own EF libraries lowering the barrier to robust, traceable carbon accounting without requiring large dedicated sustainability teams.
Technology–Market Fit for Photocatalytic Oxidation
(Active 2025–2026, Master's Thesis Project)
This project evaluates the commercial potential of photocatalytic value-added oxidation for the production of bio-based chemical intermediates. The analysis is conducted from the perspective of an early-stage market entrant seeking to identify promising initial application areas for a novel photocatalytic sheet technology. In line with the project objectives, the work considers market attractiveness, competitive dynamics, regulatory conditions, regional suitability, and conceptual technological feasibility.