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2013|14 Annual Report Fraunhofer IGB

26 research building. The Center for Energy Storage operates a second site at the Bavarian branch of the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT (Oberhausen) in Sulzbach-Rosenberg. “Chemical storage – Catalysis & process” will focus on de- veloping methods to compensate for diurnal and seasonal variations in electricity generation from wind and solar energy, and to store energy over a longer period of time, involving harnessing excess electrical energy to produce chemical en- ergy carriers. First promising approaches exist, e.g. for produc- ing methane from CO2 with the “power to gas” technology. However, the prerequisite for developing sustainable, easily scalable and decentrally operated processes is developing and researching the necessary catalysts. The carbon dioxide substrate will come from carbon dioxide produced in power plants or biogas plants. Fixing the CO2 instead of releasing it into the atmosphere, has the positive side effect of making a contribution to climate protection. Both chemical catalysts and biocatalysts will be investigated. The handover of the funding approval by State Minister Aigner was celebrated by the Straubing researchers together with a second ground-breaking ceremony: just a year after the inauguration of the new laboratory building an extension is being built, which will triple the laboratory and office space for the growing team. Global Bioenergies receives subsidy commitment for industrial pilot plant at the Fraunhofer CBP Over the next three years the BioEconomy cluster company Global Bioenergies GmbH is going to construct an industrial pilot plant for the production of isobutane from biomass at the Fraunhofer Center for Chemical-Biotechnological Pro- cesses CBP in Leuna, also a partner in the leading-edge clus- ter. The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is funding the project with a 5.7 million euro grant. This lighthouse project, with Fraunhofer CBP acting as a scien- tific advisor, is a milestone for the BioEconomy cluster on the road to a sustainable biobased economy and represents im- portant bridge building to the chemical industry at the Leuna site. The support of the BMBF and the BioEconomy Cluster facilitates the participation of Global Bioenergies GmbH in the global transition from fossil to renewable resources, in the words of the German managing director. Global Bioenergies GmbH, located in the BIO-CITY building in Leipzig, is the German subsidiary of Global Bioenergies, S.A. The French listed company is a pioneer in the development of one-step fermentation processes for the direct, exclusively biological conversion of renewable resources into light olefins, the key building blocks of the petrochemical industry. The pilot plant in Leuna will combine two 5,000-liter fermen- ters and a complete purification system, mimicking all aspects of a commercial scale plant. The production capacity of up to 100 tons of isobutene per year will allow it to offer interested industrial companies the base material for their own testing purposes, e.g. for manufacturing plastics, elastomers or fuels. This second pilot for Global Bioenergies is the final step in its development program before full-scale exploitation of the isobutene process. 3 4 HIGHLIGHTS 2013

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