Press Releases

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Together with project partner Endress Holzfeuerungsanlagen, Fraunhofer researchers have developed a new type of firing technology that can reduce NOx emissions by up to 80 percent. This means that future limit values can also be reliably complied with.

For the first time, a comprehensive nationwide waste strategy has been developed in a country in the Gulf region. The project was commissioned by the Environment Public Authority (EPA) of Kuwait. Over a period of five years, the German Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental-, Safety-, and Energy Technology (UMSICHT) and its partners analysed the waste generation and management as well as the 20 major landfill sites in Kuwait. The data was used to develop the Kuwait National Waste Management Strategy 2040 (KNWMS). It sets out the implementation plan for the next 20 years.

The University of Birmingham and Fraunhofer UMSICHT are renewing their partnership addressing the practical challenges of delivering green energy and renewable resources – looking to broaden their collaboration.

Refined and increasingly innovative technologies are crucial to finding solutions for reducing the use of fossil resources. The partnership between ISI Biomass (Senai Biomass Innovation Institute), located in Três Lagoas, and the Fraunhofer UMSICHT Institute in Germany will expand the potential for research to transform waste into clean energy.

In the »BeWiSer« project, a team from Fraunhofer UMSICHT is investigating the potential of biogenic raw and residual materials in steel production as a substitute for fossil carbon and energy sources. Dr. Robert Daschner, head of the Advanced Carbon Conversion Technologies department at UMSICHT, explains: »We want to further reduce residual emissions in a future hydrogen-based steel mill process by using biogenic waste. The project focuses on the production and use of biochar instead of fossil coal and the use of synthesis gas, in particular hydrogen and carbon monoxide.« The co-utilization of plastic-containing residual material fractions, which usually occur within the steel mill process chain, is also being considered. At the end of the project, the planning of a pilot plant for the utilization of biomass with biochar production at the Salzgitter steelworks site should be completed. The technological basis for the plant design is the thermo-catalytic reforming (TCR) process developed by Fraunhofer UMSICHT.

The Center for Sustainable Fuels (ZENK) at the Fraunhofer Institutes IGB in Straubing and UMSICHT in Sulzbach-Rosenberg aims to develop new production routes for climate-neutral fuels based on CO₂, biomass and renewable electricity. The research work is being funded by the Free State of Bavaria with 11.9 million euros over a period of four years.

Fraunhofer UMSICHT presented various research projects from the field of energy technology in two lectures and a poster presentation.

Fraunhofer UMSICHT participated in this year's Biochar-Summit in Helsingborg, which was organized by European Biochar Industry Consortium EBI, the Nordic Biochar Network and the City of Helsingborg. Dr. rer. nat. Sophie Schönfeld from Fraunhofer UMSICHT gave a lecture on the topic of »From Waste to use: application potentials of biochars from different residues ob-tained by thermo-catalytic reforming (TCR®)«.

Fraunhofer UMSICHT is researching ways of using plant charcoal obtained from TCR® pyrolysis processes for biomass. In the InterPyro project, biochar is used for sustainable soil improvement and a CO2-neutral process chain is created.