Between the Chemistry of Energetic Materials and Wind Power

My professional career connects two worlds that are only different at first glance: high-energy materials ranging from rocket propulsion to explosives, and renewable energy.

Already during my years at secondary school, an excellent chemistry teacher made it clear to me that understanding material properties and practical laboratory work would become my future profession. This was followed by studies in chemistry at the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien), where I earned my doctorate with distinction in 1995. Alongside my studies, I was already working in the development department at the former Dynamit Nobel AG.

In 1999, in addition to my position as professor of applied chemistry at the Federal Higher Technical College and Research Institute in Vienna/Leberstraße, I began training pyrotechnicians and blasting engineers. Since 2011, I have continued this training through my involvement with SCT Special Chemical Trading KG. More than 30 years of experience in the development and application of energetic materials, along with numerous TV productions, specialist publications, and lectures at universities and institutions, have shaped this part of my work. The most significant milestone to date is certainly the development and patenting of my own energetic systems from 2018 to the present.

Anyone who deals with the release of high levels of energy inevitably also comes into contact with energy storage. Besides electrochemical battery systems, I am firmly convinced that hydrogen, as a universal energy storage medium, will be a fixed component of a future energy mix.

Producing this hydrogen from renewable energy sources led me, after a stay in California and observing small wind farms in the Mohave Desert, to engage with this technology.

Following initial beginnings in Northern Cyprus and Turkey, I founded Airkraft Windkraftanlagen Errichtungs- und Betriebs AG together with other idealists in 2000. This allowed me to play a significant role in the construction of 29 wind turbines (the last three of which were only built in 2026) until 2018 — a fulfilling commitment to renewable energy spanning more than a quarter century.