Plants instead of petroleum – making new bio-based material solutions tangible on a pilot scale

From laboratory to pilot scale - a rocky road

21-May-2024 - The INN PRESSME joint project, funded by the European Union with around 14 million euros, was launched three years ago. The aim of the 27 project partners from nine European countries is to establish a Europe-wide ecosystem for the development and production of plant-based, recyclable, and/or ...

Environmentally friendly non-stick coating replaces per- and polyfluorinated chemicals (PFAS) on everyday products

16-Oct-2023 - Whether it is pans, cutlery or packaging, per- and polyfluorinated chemicals (PFAS) have been used for coating in a wide variety of everyday products and processes for many years. Due to known risks of these substances to humans and the environment, at least a partial ban on the production and ...

Taking the fight to microplastics with lasers

First laser-drilled filter for the filtration of microplastics from wastewater

05-Apr-2022 - Until now, wastewater treatment plants have not been able to sufficiently filter out tiny microplastics in wastewater, but this could soon change: The first laser-drilled microplastic filter is being tested in a wastewater treatment plant. It contains sheets with extremely small holes just 10 ...

New light source: A million times brighter than the sun

PhD thesis investigated application of a special white-light laser for semiconductor industry and microbiology

14-Feb-2022 - A new high-performance white-light laser is expected to speed up quality control in the semiconductor industry and provide closer monitoring of toxicity tests in microbiology. In one step, this laser enables the two-sided characterization of surfaces and can be integrated into production chains. ...

Polypropylene recycling from carpet waste

Now possible thanks to a new process

04-Jun-2021 - A significant part of carpet waste consists of petroleum-based polypropylene. As a non-recyclable product, disposing of it has previously meant incineration or landfill. However, a new solvent is now making it possible to recover virgin-standard polypropylene from carpet waste — with no ...

Special coating protects steel from hydrogen ‘attack’

Almost no evidence of brittleness

29-Jul-2020 - Regeneratively produced hydrogen is an ideal energy carrier, which will be used in future applications as fuel cells and cars and will supplement natural gas as an energy source. But atomic hydrogen often induces brittle behavior in metals at high temperatures. Lukas Gröner of the Fraunhofer IWM, ...

Porous silicon layers for more efficient lithium-ion batteries

06-Sep-2019 - The Fraunhofer FEP has developed coating processes for industry for several years. Recently in the project PoSiBat, Fraunhofer FEP scientists were able to develop a non-toxic and efficient manufacturing process for porous silicon layers. The results of the recently completed project will be ...

Nanocoating prevents greasy smears

Anti-fingerprint surfaces

05-Jul-2019 - Not only are greasy fingerprints on shiny stainless steel surfaces unattractive, they also attack the surface in question. A new nanocoating being developed by Fraunhofer researchers will in the future prevent the annoying smudges that result from fingers touching stainless steel surfaces. The ...

Economical energy storage for the electric car of tomorrow

Dry electrode coating technology allows environmentally friendly battery cell production

07-Jun-2019 - Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS in Dresden have developed a new production process with the aim of efficient and environmentally friendly future battery production. They coat the electrodes of the energy storage cells with a dry film instead of liquid ...

New technology for warm white LEDs

27-Feb-2019 - Light emitting diodes (LEDs) provide significant energy savings over conventional light sources. In terms of light quality, however, conventional lighting solutions are still superior to LEDs as the latter are unable to reproduce the entire color spectrum. Most importantly, LEDs lack an efficient ...