Press and Media

How can pure hydrogen be produced in a climate-neutral process, independent of solar radiation or wind strength, and then utilized to operate fuel cells or for application in the semiconductor industry? This is the question being addressed by a current research project involving the Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST, the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT, and Veolia Umweltservice Süd GmbH & Co. KG. Their plan is to use organic waste as a starting material for alternative hydrogen production.

The project consortium led by Fraunhofer UMSICHT has successfully completed the second phase of the multi-year project to improve waste management in Tunisia. The project was funded by the Bavarian State Chancellery.

In the »To-Syn-Fuel« project, a process developed by the Fraunhofer Institute UMSICHT for the production of fuels from biomass residues was implemented on a demonstration scale. So far, more than 50,000 litres of biogenic crude oil have been obtained from 500 tonnes of sewage sludge. The construction of a large-scale demonstrator in the Bavarian town of Hohenburg (district of Amberg-Sulzbach) was funded with 12.5 million euros as part of an EU project (11 European partners). At the end of the project, a test vehicle with the fuel completed a round trip of more than 2000 kilometres through Europe.

How can the practice of WEEE recycling in Ghana be improved through a technology transfer from Germany? This question is being addressed by a project led by Fraunhofer UMSICHT and funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment. The aim of the project is to examine how the existing treatment can be supplemented by thermochemical methods and optimised sales channels. This can increase the added value locally and at the same time reduce the environmental and health impacts.

The eMISKWaste project team has reached a major milestone. In two final conferences, the »Kuwait National Waste Management Strategy 2040« as well as the »Landfill Management and Rehabilitation Strategy« were presented to his Excellency Sheikh Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Humoud Al-Sabah, representatives of EPA departments as well as of other Kuwaiti authorities, universities and industry. Fraunhofer UMSICHT has worked on the project in Kuwait since 2017 together with ten partners from Germany and Kuwait. Activities included a country-wide waste and landfill survey, the development of an GIS-based database and customized applications as well as the development of the Kuwait National Waste Management Strategy together with several Kuwaiti stakeholders.

Bayernoil Raffineriegesellschaft and the Fraunhofer Institute UMSICHT in Sulzbach-Rosenberg want to advance the large-scale production of sustainable fuels. The focus of the announced cooperation is the further development and upscaling of the TCR technology developed by Fraunhofer UMSICHT for the conversion of residual and waste materials into »green« crude oil.