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ePaper created 2014-05-07, 13:23:14 | version 1.30.01
CHEMISTRY 93 Dr. Christian Oehr The chemical industry is one of the most important and research-intensive economic sectors in Germany. Many innovations in other sectors such as the automotive, electrical and electronic, construction and packaging industries would not be possible without the contribution of chemistry. The chemical industry is characterized by its resource- and energy-intensive process- es. Dependence on imports of raw materials, the limited availability of fossil resources world- wide – including competition for their energetic utilization – and the necessity of considering the effects on both climate and the environment mean that our work, too, is concentrated on approaches focusing on more efficient utilization of fossil resources, or their substitution: Use of renewable raw materials Our activities are aimed at developing biotechnological processes to manufacture chemicals and energy carriers from renewable raw materials and coupling these with chemical processes. Process intensification for a more efficient utilization of energy and resources The focus here is on developments in the field of upstream and downstream processing, with effective separation of material flows by means of membranes or through the recirculation of material flows (recycling, sustainable waste management). Decoupling of volume and surface properties by means of interfacial process engineering Tailored coatings which are themselves geared towards resource-efficient process engineer- ing create new possibilities as to the choice of base materials for workpieces and thus for new products based on a selection of sustainable resources. Evaluation and substitution of critical substances Chemical substances, insofar as they are represented in the market on a large scale, are sys- tematically investigated with regard to their risk potential, in accordance with EU regulations. The diversity of our research and development work shows how we are tackling the challenges of these new approaches. This may involve cooperation with other institutes of the Fraunhofer Group for Materials and Components – MATERIALS, or with the Fraunhofer Nanotechnology, Photocatalysis, Polymer Surfaces POLO® , and Cleaning Technology Alliances. New impulses for transferring the material utilization of renewable raw materials to industrial scale will also be given by the Fraunhofer Center for Chemical-Biotechnological Processes CBP in Leuna, which is being jointly operated by the Fraunhofer IGB and ICT institutes.