Press / Newsroom

Load carriers such as pallets, crates or tanks are indispensable for transporting all kinds of products, but hardly ever get any of the limelight themselves. Fraunhofer researchers have devoted themselves to this topic and have now developed a software to track and make visible the paths of the load carriers. This gives the logistics sector enormous opportunities to improve efficiency. With Logistikbude, the Fraunhofer researchers have even founded their own spin-off.

Until now, the most common way to dispose of green waste and sewage sludge has been to compost or incinerate it. However, using these materials to produce the valuable energy source hydrogen would make far more sense. A team of researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA is working towards this very goal. CO2 capture is key to this development: The CO2 that is generated during the production of hydrogen from waste is separated and then used as a raw material in the chemical industry, for example. In this way, the research team can produce carbon-negative hydrogen from organic waste using a variety of processes, which consequently remove CO2 from the atmosphere.

Magnets are valuable components. Although functional magnet recycling methods have been developed in recent years, they have not yet been applied in practice and magnets continue to be melted down into steel scrap. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Materials Recycling and Resource Strategies IWKS provide good arguments for why this should change in the future. Their “FUNMAG” project demonstrates that recycled magnets can be used to power engines in the e-mobility sector, without any loss of power. It also shows that establishing a value chain for large-scale magnet recycling will pay off.

If breast cancer is suspected, doctors carry out a biopsy. However, this is invasive, painful and costly. It also takes several days to get the results. In the future, diagnosis could be made via a liquid biopsy of a patient’s blood — a gentle, cost-effective method that would deliver the results within just a few hours. A team of researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP is working alongside partners on this innovative method.

Shipping is one of the fastest-growing sources of greenhouse gases, and this is leading shipbuilders and operators on a search for environmentally friendly alternative propulsion systems. Researchers at Fraunhofer have joined forces with partners to develop the HyMethShip concept, in which hydrogen is obtained from methanol. This technology does not require large hydrogen tanks to be carried on board, making it much safer. In the future, it may also prove to be an attractive solution for cruise liners.

Viruses can make animals and humans sick – or healthy: Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB have succeeded in genetically modifying the herpes simplex virus type 1, which triggers painful cold sores, in such a way that it can be used in the fight against cancer in the future.

Biogas plants produce methane along with more than 40 percent CO2 which has been released into the atmosphere in conventional biogas plants. Researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Microengineering and Microsystems IMM have now found a way to convert this waste product into additional methane, thus drastically increasing the methane yield from biogas plants. The process is up and running and the research team is currently scaling up the demonstration plant to five cubic meters of methane per hour.

The demand for cash increases in times of crisis since many people consider banknotes and coins to be a particularly safe way to keep money. Moreover, cash is the only instrument of payment that is largely independent of a technical infrastructure. It is therefore essential that, during a crisis, people can access cash, particularly when other – electronic – means of payment might not be available or only to a limited extent. This is why researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS are working closely with partners to develop a security framework that can be implemented during emergencies and crises. It specifically aims to further secure the work processes of cash management companies.

Batteries for electric cars and mobile devices are easy to use, but repeated charging and discharging accelerates aging, reduces the performance of battery cells and shortens their service life. In the SPARTACUS research project, researchers at Fraunhofer ISC are using a range of different sensors to monitor the internal status of battery cells. The data can be used to optimize the battery management system, the charging and discharging processes and the stress on individual cells in the battery module. This makes batteries significantly faster to charge — and even extends their service life.

The European Union wants the Life Cycle Assessment of buildings to be given more significance in the future, and the EU Taxonomy creates a systematic basis for this: It defines criteria for evaluating investments, including for the climate change mitigation objective of the taxonomy. Researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics IBP worked together with a business partner to develop a software suite that combines ecological indicators and economic calculations for investments. This has an influence on banks’ lending decisions since interest surcharges are possible for non-green investments in the future.