Carbon recycling: Fraunhofer IKTS grows at Freiberg site

Carbon is a key raw material for countless products in our daily lives. To date, industry has largely utilised fossil raw material sources such as crude oil, natural gas or coal. Large amounts of CO2 are released both during the production of these raw materials and at the end of the product's life when it is burned. Germany alone burns around 47 million tonnes of this carbon-containing waste every year in thermal waste treatment and combustion plants. In the future, up to 100% of this waste should be recyclable and usable in new products thanks to precisely coordinated combinations of chemical recycling processes. This makes waste a valuable source of raw materials, for example for basic materials in the chemical industry.

At the new site in Freiberg, chemical recycling processes such as pyrolysis or gasification are being optimised and tested on a large technical scale. Plastics that cannot be mechanically recycled, biomass or mixed fossil waste are broken down into smaller molecules so that they can be reused as synthesis gases, monomers or other intermediate products in the chemical industry. To this end, the researchers operate a pyrolysis platform at the site and - in cooperation with the TU Bergakademie Freiberg - gasification plants to investigate various issues: Which waste fractions can be converted into which type of base materials? How do the processes have to be run in order to avoid corrosion or caking or to achieve a certain purity of the products? And finally, there is also the question of economic efficiency. In this way, various technologies can be adapted, evaluated and transferred into customer-specific solutions for the closure of carbon cycles for industrial partners.

These competences are to be expanded in the future. Prof Martin Gräbner, head of the new field office in Freiberg and professor of energy process engineering and chemical engineering at the TU Bergakademie Freiberg, explains: »In future, we want to enable the most efficient and resource-saving utilisation of carbon sources with the lowest possible CO2 emissions. The basis for this must be electricity generated from renewable sources, which can be incorporated, for example, as green hydrogen via special synthesis processes. This is where we optimally tie in with the expertise at IKTS.

If the aforementioned recycling processes are combined with electrochemical conversion processes such as high-temperature electrolysis or synthesis processes such as Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, higher-quality products such as synthetic paraffin can be produced and high levels of efficiency can be achieved.

Only the coupling of material, energy and heat flows in total leads to process concepts that offer significant added value compared to previous approaches. Prof Alexander Michaelis, Institute Director of Fraunhofer IKTS, is delighted about the new addition in Freiberg and describes the associated potential: "IKTS has many years of experience with technologies for hydrogen production and utilisation. Here, high-temperature electrolysis and Fischer-Tropsch synthesis are absolute core technologies. With our expanded expertise in the field of carbon cycle technologies, we are now in a position to provide new raw material and energy resources for a large industry.

über KKT

The Carbon Cycle Technologies KKT research group was founded in October 2017 as an external unit of the Fraunhofer IMWS. The research objectives of the KKT focus on the efficient, resource-saving and climate-neutral utilisation of carbon carriers. This development work is carried out in close cooperation with the TU Bergakademie Freiberg. The KKT research group received start-up funding of 4.6 million euros from the Saxon State Ministry of Science, Culture and Tourism (SMWK), which was used to purchase extensive equipment, among other things. The KKT currently has 20 researchers working at the Freiberg site.

 about Fraunhofer IKTS

The Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS conducts application-oriented research into high-performance ceramics. The three branches of the institute in Dresden and Hermsdorf (Thuringia) together form the largest ceramics research institute in Europe. As a research and technology service provider, Fraunhofer IKTS develops modern high-performance ceramic materials, industry-relevant manufacturing processes and prototype components and systems in complete production lines up to the pilot scale. In addition, the research portfolio includes expertise in the circular economy as well as electrolysis, hydrogen and power-to-X technologies.

Press release Fraunhofer Institute from 10 January 2023