Directorate

Professor Dr.-Ing. Matthias Franke heads the Sulzbach-Rosenberg branch of the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT. Franke graduated from the University of Rostock with a degree in engineering in land culture and environmental protection and subsequently obtained his doctorate in waste management. At Fraunhofer UMSICHT and its legal predecessor ATZ Development Center, he headed the Circular Economy Department for more than ten years. His main areas of work include the development of waste management and resource strategies as well as the energy and material recycling of waste and residual materials.

More recent fields of research that Matthias Franke has established at the institute include the chemical recycling of composite materials such as electronic scrap or glass and carbon fiber reinforced plastics, conversion processes for biomass and biogenic residues into fuels, basic chemicals and biocarbonates as well as the decontamination of construction waste using thermal processes.