Alumni-Spotlight - Dr.-Ing. Rodrigo Pastl

Rodrigo Pastl "just wanted to learn a little German" when he left Brazil to go to Berlin in 2013. He stayed for almost five years and made his greatest dream come true at the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology IPK. Now he is back in Brazil as a climate saver as the Ambassador of UNIDO, the industrial development organization of the United Nations. He has set out to research as Digitalization and Quality Manager the optimization of biogas plants and is also involved in helping German technologies take root in the tropics.

Mr. Pastl, what brought you to Fraunhofer?

After my master's degree in Brazil, I worked as a Global Management Trainee at the mining company Vale S/A. As a telemetry engineer, I first worked as a coordinator and then as an internal manager responsible for service and maintenance management and development. On my first opportunity to travel, I went to Berlin on vacation. At first, I actually only wanted to learn a little German.

However, when I got to Germany, Dr. Tiago Borsoi Klein, Research Fellow at Fraunhofer IPK, and Dr. David Domingos, Managing Director at the Fraunhofer Project Center Advanced Manufacturing ITA, invited me to Fraunhofer. I had met them in 2010 while working on my Master's thesis at ITA in Brazil. A scholarship from the Brazilian government made it possible to fulfill my biggest dream: to do my PhD in Germany. Why was this my dream? Because I am a mechanical engineer and German quality is unbeatable!

At the end of 2017, the Fraunhofer IPK together with the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (ITA) opened the Fraunhofer Project Center for Advanced Manufacturing @ ITA. The center, FPC@ITA for short, maintains strategic cooperation between IPK and the Brazilian institute. That is how I came to the position as guest researcher and was able to coordinate various projects and collaborations in the field of Industrie 4.0 and additive manufacturing. Parallel to my work, I was a student supervisor, which gave me the opportunity to supervise a Six Sigma project (Green Belt). Several of my students are now in great positions, which for me is tremendously rewarding. Also, this gave me the opportunity to receive the Six-Sigma Black Belt Certificate. I also inititated several partnerships between German organizations and Brazil such as a cooperation between the Brazlian Embassy and the Technical University of Berlin, the Fraunhofer IPK and the "Science without Borders" program of the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service).

During my time at Fraunhofer IPK, I worked in the "Production Systems" department headed by Prof. Eckart Uhlmann in the "Production Machines and Plant Management" department, where I reported to Eckhard Hohwieler. This was a very enriching experience, for which I am still very grateful. After all, I received my doctorate from Prof. Eckart Uhlmann. My project was even included in the Institute's annual report at that time.

What was your research about?

We developed a mobile app that ensures quality in the process of selective laser welding. In addition to ensuring quality, the app also allows us to evaluate the data. "Additive Manufacturing AM 4.0" is an application for decentralized online process and machine monitoring. This makes it possible to react quickly to situations that compromise quality. Intelligent algorithms allow the app to identify different systems and the machine's condition. This means the app also enables predictive maintenance.

Did your research prepare you for your current task?

Most definitely! The most important thing I learned from my time at Fraunhofer is how to apply research in practice to develop new ideas. I've now returned to Brazil with this mindset. Here my work also includes working on maintenance processes in which I interlink networks, Industrie 4.0 and data science.

What kind of projects are you currently working on?

Right now, I am basically filling in two roles. I work for the research institute CIBiogás-ER and at the same time I am a consultant for UNIDO, the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation. For the first time at UNIDO there is a project to expand the use of biogas in southern Brazil, which will run for five years. In conjunction with UNIDO, we are also maintaining partnerships with several countries. As I am responsible for the "tropicalization" of a variety of technologies, Germany is, of course, one of my priorities.

And what are you doing at CIBiogás-ER?

We are an independent research institute in the Technology Park ITAIPU, the largest hydropower plant in the world. More than 20 companies and organizations are involved in the research project. We are researching the production and applications of biogas and biomethane. Also, the "Digitization and Quality" division I founded is investigating how we can optimize these processes with the help of data science, IoT and continuous improvement processes.

We are generating energy from waste, which is sustainable and currently has great potential. The city of Foz do Iguaçu is in a mostly agriculture region of Brazil, so there is an abundance of liquid manure, organic waste and waste from restaurants from which we can produce methane. This enables us to generate electricity and our waste no longer pollutes the environment. What is leftover is a great fertilizer that can be used to fertilize farmland or can be sold on the market.

In the meantime, we have already made significant progress with our research site and people are showing great global interest in our work. The UNIDO program draws additional attention to our project. For our first project with ITAIPU Binacional, currently one of the largest dams in the world, we are working on a major order for 17 biogas plants. Most of them will be built near pig farms. Of these 17 plants, 16 will generate a profit and, in addition, these farms will not only be able to supply themselves but also other consumers in the region with electricity on a decentralized basis. This allows us to also reduce the consumption of firewood and other energy sources. In other words, we are helping to reduce emissions of climate-damaging gases.

How important are renewable energy sources for Brazil?

Between 50 and 60 percent of our matrix consists of renewable energy. In regards to electricity, 80 percent of our matrix consists of renewable energy. However, the expansion of hydropower is now subject to severe regulatory restrictions. That is why the government is also pushing ahead with the development of alternative sources such as solar energy and biogas, among other things with corresponding legislation. However, this issue has not yet been well received by the general population.

What does your work for UNIDO look like?

I am responsible for bringing new technologies to our region. And I am looking for answers to the questions: what does Brazil need? which technologies can be of particular use in our region that can be adapted and applied to biogas and biomethane in Brazil? For this reason we are now approaching companies internationally with the aim of finding a match that will allow us to increase our competitiveness.

In February of this year, for example, we signed an agreement with the Economics and Science Center Brazil-Germany (WWZ-BD – Wirtschafts- und WissenschaftsZentrum Brasilien-Deutschland e.V.) for cooperation in the fields of business, education, science and technology. We are also working with WWZ-BD to establish contact with companies looking to expand to Brazil. We are conducting many promising negotiations and also have made contact with some well-known companies, such as Zeiss and a variety of German startups.

It’s an enormous challenge, but it allows me to help to further develop Brazil! For this reason and because of my daughter, who is now almost 1 year old, I left Germany to return to Brazil.

The Fraunhofer-Alumni e.V. is proud to announce that the "Quarks" presenter, science journalist, chemist and Fraunhofer-IAP alumna Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim has won the Hanns-Joachim-Friedrichs-Award 2019 together with ZDF presenter Harald Lesch.

The jury was convinced by the "lively language and unbridled lust and curiosity" of the two journalists, with which they make even complex topics understandable for their viewers and users. Professor Alexander Böker, Head of the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP, congratulated the 31-year-old on his cosmopolitan attitude. Nguyen-Kim is particularly interested in science among the younger generation. 

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