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ePaper created 2016-03-17, 15:06:18 | version 1.45.01
2015 was an eventful year in many ways. At the end of September, Prof. Thomas Hirth an- nounced his decision to assume a new position on the presidential committee of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Thus, now two new but familiar faces await you at this point in our annual report. Since the beginning of 2016, we have been gladly acting as interim directors to sustain absolute continuity in science and business at our institute. In the customary way, we would like to look back on the past year and look forward to the future of the institute. Professor Hirth led Fraunhofer IGB for eight years; doubling the number of employees and budget. Hirth greatly increased Fraunhofer IGB’s visibility with the research-political and strategically impactful topic of bioeconomy, which the institute had previously pursued in many facets. The formation of three project groups – one in Saxony-Anhalt and two in Bavaria – contributed to the institute’s growth. Since the start of 2015, these groups have respectively integrated with neighboring universities’ basic research programs as permanent branches and gained access to German state funding programs. It was also due to Professor Hirth that IGB now plays a leading role in Fraunhofer’s lighthouse project “Electricity as a Raw Material”, which was launched in 2015. Fraunhofer IGB is one of ten participating institutes and coordinates a part of the pro ect Related research in the field of electrochemistry will also sustainably strengthen our competence portfolio beyond the project and open up new market segments in the business area of chemistry. A synergy has also arisen with the “Center for Energy Storage” joint project with our Straubing branch BioCat and the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety, and Energy Technology UMSICHT in Sulzbach-Rosenberg. In autumn, 2015, we partnered with the American company OVIVO for the market launching of our ePhos® process – for the recycling of phosphorus from wastewater. Due to amendments in sewage sludge regulations and the rising prices for fertilizer, phosphorus recovery has once again gained interest in the German and European markets. 6 DEAR READERS,