Sustainability Into Industry

Climate-neutral, resource-saving, eco-friendly: The requirements that products and their manufacturing must meet are changing dramatically. Companies need to adapt, and Fraunhofer IPK is supporting them along the way.

Reducing energy consumption, reusing materials, reducing greenhouse gases (GHG): If we want to protect nature and slow down climate change, industry will have to undergo massive changes. Measures at the corporate management level are just as important as making adjustments to the life cycles of products or to production processes – on an international level. Fraunhofer IPK offers targeted support in all these areas. 

© LRP Autorecycling Leipzig
The circular economy is a way towards more sustainability: Components of a product are reused at the end of its life.

Systematically achieving sustainability

»We find that sustainability poses major challenges for SMEs in particular,« says Felix Budde. His team develops methods and digital solutions for sustainability management. For several years now, the sustainability benchmarking they developed has specifically provided SMEs with an initial indication of their performance in terms of sustainability. Current projects such as KliMaWirtschaft deepen aspects of the overarching vision. »Many companies don't even know how much greenhouse gas they emit – yet only a sound basis of data makes targeted improvements possible,« summarizes Budde.

Designing future-proof products

Companies achieve the greatest impact in terms of sustainability when they start with their cornerstones: their products. Fraunhofer IPK develops methods and digital solutions to design products sustainably and circularly starting at their development. A training program for companies is currently being developed on this topic – Mastering Sustainable Engineering. Janine Mügge explains the program she designed: »In an online course paired with specialist seminars, we answer questions such as these: What does sustainability mean in the engineering context? What do we as a company have to report in future? What do employees and IT systems need to be able to do?«

»We find that sustainability
poses major challenges
for SMEs in particular.«

Implementing circular economy

The »product« lever is also a starting point for the circular economy. Instead of disposing of products in their entirety once they reach end of life, the idea is that digital support can allow them to be refurbished or broken down into components that can be reused or recycled. Mügge's team is active in this area as well. »For the circular economy to work, companies need to collaborate much more closely than they have in the past,« she says. The Catena-X project connects companies along the automotive value chain. Until now, vehicle dismantlers hardly had any access to information about the materials used in the car. This made it difficult both to reuse components and to recycle materials. The Catena-X data ecosystem not only enables the simple exchange of information. The so-called CE assistant additionally determines the best recovery strategy for the installed parts. The Aerospace-X project is developing similar concepts for the aerospace industry.

Recovery strategies are also the focus of the project Digma-DT. Here, digital twins are used to make the carbon footprint during the recovery process transparent. The overall aim is to reduce GHG emissions. Other activities at Fraunhofer IPK that promote the circular economy are aimed at recognizing components in order to prepare them for a »second life«. Technologies for identifying used parts are being developed, based on intelligent image processing supported by artificial intelligence.

Residue-free recycling

Fraunhofer IPK is also working on materials that can be recycled without residue so that even the recovery of components that cannot be reused becomes more sustainable. Annika Brehmer, head of the Bio- and Pharmaceutical Production Technology department, and her team are researching biopolymers. Unlike conventional »forever chemicals«, they can be biodegraded by microorganisms within a few weeks. The department produces these biopolymers by fermentation from waste materials, for example to build thumb orthoses for assembly tasks in vehicle manufacturing. When the orthoses are no longer needed, they are disposed of without harming the environment.

Bridging the planet

True sustainability can only be achieved in a global context. Fraunhofer IPK therefore works with partners around the world to make production and the associated supply chains more sustainable on an international level. The institute is particularly active in Brazil. »Projects concerning sustainability or energy transition must start from different angles: Raw materials, energy, workforce and technology. Brazil has raw materials and renewable energy, we in Germany can contribute the technology,« says Dr. David Carlos Domingos, head of the Fraunhofer IPK Project Office for Advanced Manufacturing at ITA in São José dos Campos. This is why Fraunhofer IPK has supported the Brazilian National Service for Industrial Training (SENAI) in setting up a national research network. »We need local partners for targeted research. There is a lot we can learn from them,« says Markus Will, who was crucial in driving the project forward. »Because we can only initiate innovative projects that benefit the industry if we exchange ideas internationally.«

More information

 

Technology

Sustainability Benchmarking

An entry point into corporate sustainability management for small and medium-sized enterprises

 

Research project

KliMaWirtschaft

The project supports companies in the systematic implementation of  consistent climate protection while maintaining economic success.

Research project

Catena-X

Catena-X is an initiative to create a common data infrastructure for the entire automotive value chain. 

Research project

Aerospace-X

Aerospace-X develops a collaborative ecosystem for sustainability and circular economy in the aviation industry and future-proofs supply chains through digitalization and data sovereignty.

 

Research project

Digma-DT

The project aims to increase the efficient use of resources at the end of a vehicle's life on the basis of digital twin information.

 

Technology

Automatic Identification and Evaluation of Old Parts

 

BioFusion 4.0

Integration of biological principles in Industry 4.0

 

SENAI

Since 2012, Fraunhofer IPK and other partners have been supporting the Brazilian National Service for Industrial Training (SENAI) in setting up a national research network.