Press releases

At the BAU 2023 trade fair, Fraunhofer UMSICHT will present innovative solutions for the construction of the future at the joint booth of the Fraunhofer Building Innovation Alliance (Hall C2, Booth 528) from April 17 to 22. Energy and CO₂ can be saved with the new lightweight resource-saving glass-foil roof coverings; a vertical water retention system absorbs precipitation water and stores it directly so that overloading of the sewer system and flooding in heavily sealed areas can be avoided.

What aspects of electrochemical reactors are currently being researched? This question is the focus of the 4. "Electrochemical Cell Concepts Colloquium – E3C" on May 4 and 5, 2023. The call for papers for the virtual event runs until March 6: Scientists whose work revolves around (flow) batteries, fuel cells, electrolyzers or water treatment cells can submit abstracts for talks or posters.

Under the motto "Get into the loop", an international circular economy community will meet for the first time in Munich on February 8 and 9, 2023, at the Fraunhofer CCPE Summit under the leadership of UMSICHT Institute Director Prof. Manfred Renner. It is the starting signal for an international forum that promotes the exchange of solution ideas and innovations for a circular plastics economy. Program details and a registration form can be found on the website of Fraunhofer CCPE. For about four years, six Fraunhofer institutes have been dedicated in the Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence Circular Plastics Economy CCPE to the question of how the value chain of plastics can be made circular.

The packaging world is experiencing a shift away from plastic toward paper, cardboard or paperboard. But how sustainable is this new trend? In its latest report “Reusable plastic crates vs. single-use cardboard boxes — two packag-ing systems in competition”¹, the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT and the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics IBP were commissioned by the Stiftung Initiative Mehrweg (SIM) to explain the background to and correlations between the ecological effects of single-use cardboard boxes and reusable plastic crates. A general discourse on the topic of single-use vs. reusable solutions intends to help po-litical actors lay the groundwork for a viable circular economy of the future.

In the current study "resources SAVED by recycling", Fraunhofer UMSICHT analyzed for the recycling service provider Interzero which climate-related environmental damage can be avoided with recycling solutions and how high the resulting savings potentials are. The result: In 2021, Interzero could save one million greenhouse gas emissions and conserve 12.5 million tons of primary resources, thus avoiding costs of 199 million euros for climate-related environmental damage. Interzero will present further details of the study at K 2022.

Fraunhofer UMSICHT is developing new materials for the resource-efficient use of plastics. The focus is on bioplastics, a circular plastics economy and strategies for reducing macro- and microplastics in the environment. Fraunhofer UMSICHT presents bio-based and circular plastics on the fair K 2022 in hall 6, booth D67: valuable chemical intermediates from coffee grounds, a film material based on thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU), PLA copounds for technical components and biodegradable mulch films.

More than 350 million tons of plastic are produced worldwide every year, and vast amounts of plastic waste simply end up in the environment. The circular economy offers enormous potential for keeping plastics in the loop and thus conserving resources and the environment. Since 2018, six Fraunhofer institutes in the Fraunhofer CCPE cluster have been researching how to make the plastics value chain circular, and Manfred Renner has been the new head of the cluster since August 2022. Research results, implementation projects and strategies to accelerate the transformation to a circular plastics economy will be presented by Fraunhofer CCPE at the first international Fraunhofer CCPE Summit on February 8 and 9, 2023 in Munich.

Prof. Manfred Renner and Prof. Christian Doetsch will take joint leadership of the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT from August 2022. As renowned scientists, they have most recently shaped the direction of the institute as heads of the Products division and Energy division respectively, and will now follow in the footsteps of Prof. Eckhard Weidner, who has entered retirement.

Whether combined heat and power (CHP) or chillers – in many German hospitals are plants which, due to their size, are excellently suited to promote the integration of renewable energies as well as to take advantage of short-term fluctuations in the price of electricity. Fraunhofer UMSICHT, Stadtwerke Bochum GmbH and Evangelisches Krankenhaus Hattingen have investigated the achievable potential of load shifting in the project "Hybrid Energy Storage Hospital (HESKH)". One of their results: If all CHP plants currently installed in hospitals are operated flexibly and the operation is optimized according to the market prices for electricity, there is – roughly estimated ¬– a load shifting potential of about 300 MW for positive and 200 MW for negative flexibility.

With around 100 participants and speakers from Australia, Europe, North and Central America, the third "Electrochemical Cell Concepts Colloquium – E3C" on May 19, 2022 was a complete success. This year, the presentations and discussions focused on CO₂ conversion and capture, 3D-printed electrodes and innovative cell and stack concepts.