Sustainable materials, components and products

Circularity strategies, value preserving processes and technologies

The thematic focus on sustainable materials, components and products addresses the challenges in the area of production-related, environmentally harmful emissions and their impact on climate change. For an efficient and effective use of resources, the current cradle-to-grave principle of linear economic and production methods is to be broken through and replaced by the reduction, recycling and recovery of materials in production processes.

Circularity strategies encompass the entire life cycle of a raw material, a material, a component or a product. They aim to use resources purposefully and sparingly by maximising resource efficiency and recycling materials. Technologies and their development are important drivers for successful implementation. Digital technologies can be important levers for sustainable production systems and circular material flows in order to create sustainable value chains and realise circular business models.

In Freiburg, in addition to the established expertise in production and materials research, the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Freiburg, and in particular INATECH, is a central authority in the research field of circularity engineering. Fundamental scientific principles for the integration of circularity and digitalisation in engineering sustainability research are developed here.

Contact

Frank Huberth, Fraunhofer IWM

Group leader crash safety and damage mechanics 

+49 7615142472

frank.huberth@iwm.fraunhofer.de

Thematic fields

Digitalisation and AI for circular value generation
Digitalisation can make a positive contribution to sustainability by helping to conserve resources and reduce emissions through the use of digital technologies and solutions. Data plays a central role in digitalisation. It is at the heart of digital technologies and serves as a raw material for generating knowledge and insights. Due to the large amount of relevant data generated along the value chain of production processes, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) or subordinate AI methods, such as big data, is suitable in almost all phases of data management.
Nachhaltige Materialien
R-technologies like reuse, repair, recycling for components and products
The development, application and implementation of technologies analogous to the r-strategies (reduce, reuse, repair, refit, rebuild, refurbish, recycle) can make a significant contribution to reducing waste, saving resources and thus to sustainability.
Nachhaltige Energiesysteme
Increase of energy and ressource efficiency in production processes
To minimise emissions, processes are pursued that require the lowest possible use of energy and resources.
This can be achieved by using energy-efficient machines and technologies, optimising production processes and improving the quality of materials, components and products.