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.

Matthias Franke has established new fields of research at the institute, including carbon conversion technologies. These include the chemical recycling of plastic waste and composite materials such as electronic scrap and glass- and carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics. He also works on the conversion of biomass and biogenic residues into fuels, basic chemicals, and biocarbonates, as well as the decontamination of construction waste using thermochemical processes.