Press releases

They can be used to produce green hydrogen and convert carbon dioxide into feedstocks for the chemical industry. Electrolysis technologies have increasingly come into focus in the context of climate protection, energy and raw material change. The result: a plethora of catalyst candidates, almost none of which, however, has yet reached the stage of applicability. Marketable concepts for electrodes and cells are also still in short supply. Scientists from the Fraunhofer Institutes UMSICHT, ISE and ICT, the University of Duisburg-Essen, the Ruhr University Bochum, the Center for Fuel Cell Technology (ZBT) and the Danish company IRD Fuel Cells have investigated the reasons for this and what needs to change for electrolysis to become an industrial application. They have published their findings under the title "Crossing the Valley of Death: From Fundamental to Applied Research in Electrolysis" in the "Journal of American Chemistry Au".

Construction work has started on an unusual project in Oberhausen-Tackenberg: 836 residential units of the Osterfelder Wohnungsgenossenschaft and the Wohnungsgenossenschaft Oberhausen-Sterkrade will be supplied with climate-friendly local heat in the future. The energy supplier Energieversorgung Oberhausen AG (evo) and the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety, and Energy Technology UMSICHT developed the underlying energy supply concept, which includes building renovations by the housing cooperatives.

Defossilizing production chains and establishing circular, greenhouse gas-neutral material and energy conversion – the chemical industry has set itself ambitious goals in terms of sustainability. As of now, nine institutes of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft are providing support in this process: In the lead project ShaPID, they want to bundle their research activities for achieving the sustainability goals and at the same time strengthen their relationships with the industry.

"Functional components", "Characterization", "Manufacturing", "Cell and stack design": These are the main topics of this year's "E3C – Electrochemical Cell Concepts Colloquium". On May 6, 2021, researchers will discuss similarities and potential combinations of electrochemical reactor designs – interdisciplinary, international and virtual. The event is organized by the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety, and Energy Technology UMSICHT.

Plastics offer very good properties, are often durable materials and are used in all kinds of areas - from packaging to the construction industry to medicine. If plastic products are recycled for as long as possible, resource consumption is reduced and the climate is protected. Many medical products that have only been approved by the manufacturer for a single use also contain plastics, for example electrophysiology catheters (heart catheters). A research team from the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT was commissioned by the Medical Remanufacturing company Vanguard AG to investigate the positive environmental impact of medical remanufacturing using certified processes rather than disposing of these products. At the AMDR (Association of Medical Device Reprocessors) round table on March 11, co-author Anna Schulte will explain the details of the recently published study.

Wastewater plants employ a variety of effective and established processes to treat sewage and wastewater. As yet, however, there is no ideal, uniformly recognized method for removing trace substances. Researchers from the Fraun-hofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT are seeking to change this. In a project known as ZeroTrace, they are pursuing an integrated approach that combines their very own activated carbon composite with a newly developed electrical regeneration process. The result is a method that promises efficiency, sustainability and large-scale viability.

Announcement UMSICHT Science Award 2021 Science communication: Focusing on the target group The year 2020 and, in particular, the media attention surrounding the Corona pandemic show how important it is to communicate scientific topics in a comprehensible and target group-oriented manner and what a high priority science has. The UMSICHT Science Award aims at promoting the dialog between science and society and is being presented for the 12th time by the UMSICHT Friends and Patrons Group. Now, the go-ahead has been given to send applications in the categories science and journalism.

The chances of reducing industrial CO₂ emissions by 2030 are good. The technical prerequisites have been created thanks to projects such as Carbon2Chem^®. Now it is important to set up the corresponding framework conditions in the form of regulations, renewable energies and green hydrogen. This is the quintessence of the 3^rd Conference on Sustainable Chemical Conversion on October 27 and 28, 2020.

Making steel production climate-friendly – this is the goal Carbon2Chem^® started with in March 2016. The first phase of the joint project funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research was completed in May 2020. During these four years, process concepts have been developed which help to capture and clean the CO₂-containing exhaust gases from Germany's largest steel mill and convert them into basic materials for chemicals, fuels or fertilizers using “green” hydrogen. In the second project phase, these concepts will be validated for large-scale implementation.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT in Oberhausen and Hörmann, a family-owned company, have developed a new type of fire-resistant glass that holds up under even extreme heat – and ported this glazing from the beaker to the production line within four years. No more toxic acrylamide, around 85 percent less process waste, a leaner manufacturing process, excellent performance – these product merits garnered the development team the Joseph von Fraunhofer Prize.