The sound science of cleaner energy: Jenny Seagraves

Jenny became a lifelong learner, gravitating to a world of challenging questions where she and her team oversee an emerging technology that helps remove hydrogen sulfide (an impurity that smells like rotten eggs) from natural gas with less energy and fewer emissions.

Unlocking those answers is a meticulous process, and incremental success only comes through testing, retesting – and retesting. And while the scientific method requires methodical evaluation and observation, expanding new understanding of the world from the lab requires imagination.

In chemistry, scientists can’t actually see how molecules interact with each other because everything is at the atomic level. Instead, they have to infer, visualize or imagine those reactions. Answers only come after testing.

Jenny Seagraves, age 8, with her brother outside her home in Hong Kong.

Jenny, her team and their colleagues at BASF spent almost four years screening the right combination of molecules they needed to develop OASE^® Sulfexx^TM* – a new technology to efficiently remove hydrogen sulfide from natural gas streams.

They started with more than 100 different molecules and screened them for unique properties. The top candidates were synthesized and then tested in the lab. Ultimately, after diligently evaluating the behavior of each molecular candidate, the team zeroed in on three leading options. From there, the team has worked to scale its findings into commercial testing.