Synthesizing fine chemicals: Technological Advance in Production of Pharmaceuticals

04-Oct-2024 - Production of fine chemicals such as those used in pharmaceuticals is typically complex and laborious. An interdisciplinary team of Fraunhofer researchers worked together across different projects to devise a method modeled on a cascade, in which multiple successive stages of synthesis proceed ...

Feathers replace petroleum

Adhesives from feathers: The project addresses a billion-dollar market

06-Mar-2024 - Adhesives are almost always based on fossil raw materials such as petroleum. Researchers at Fraunhofer have recently developed a process that allows to utilize keratin for this purpose. This highly versatile protein compound can be found, for instance, in chicken feathers. Not only can it be used ...

PFAS contaminated water becomes clean again

Promising and environmentally friendly process developed

25-Jul-2023 - There are many man-made environmental pollutants. One of the most serious is pollution with the harmful perpetual chemical PFAS, which can be found in many soils and waters and thus also in our food. Although it is possible to remove it, it is costly and produces hazardous waste. Now, researchers ...

Plasma against toxic PFAS chemicals

“Ideally, the harmful PFAS substances are eliminated to the point that they can no longer be detected in mass spectrometric measurements”

04-May-2023 - Harmful PFAS chemicals can now be detected in many soils and bodies of water. Removing them using conventional filter techniques is costly and almost infeasible. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB are now successfully implementing a ...

Green gold: Torrefied biomass to replace coal and oil

Start-up enables green chemicals from wood and hay

14-Mar-2023 - In February, the Estonian-based startup New Standard Oil successfully commissioned their first industrial-scale prototype for drying and torrefaction of biogenic feedstock operating with superheated steam at atmospheric pressure. The energy-efficient process was developed at the Fraunhofer ...

Turning harmful carbon dioxide into useful chemicals

Inspired by nature: Electro-biocatalytic CO₂ fixing replaces fossil resources

14-Jan-2022 - Making important raw materials for fine chemicals out of carbon dioxide really works. As part of the Max Planck collaborative project eBioCO2n, a team of researchers from Fraunhofer IGB have successfully performed a first ever fixation of CO2 via a multi-enzyme enzyme reaction driven by ...

Carbon dioxide as a raw material for plastics and other products

Carbon dioxide is one of the main drivers of climate change – which means that we need to reduce Carbon dioxide emissions in the future. Fraunhofer researchers are highlighting a possible way to lower

05-Aug-2021 - Carbon dioxide is one of the main drivers of climate change – which means that we need to reduce Carbon dioxide emissions in the future. Fraunhofer researchers are highlighting a possible way to lower these emissions: They use the greenhouse gas as a raw material, for instance to produce ...

Bacteria fed on a customized diet produce biodegradable polymers for alternative packaging in the cosmetics industry

Replacing harmful solvents with pressure change technology

06-Oct-2020 - Germany generates around 38 kilograms of plastic waste per capita each year. In a joint project with the University of Stuttgart and LCS Life Cycle Simulation, researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB and the Fraunhofer Institute for Process ...

Dyes from atmospheric CO₂

Value creation by combining electrochemistry with biotechnology

21-Aug-2020 - Time for climate protection is pressing. One approach to tackle this challenge is to use the greenhouse gas CO2 as a raw material for chemicals. To this end, the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB, together with partners from science and industry, has pursued a ...

A real alternative to crude oil

The synthesis of bio-based high-performance polyamide from biogenic residues

29-Jan-2020 - A research team from the Fraunhofer Society and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) led by chemist Volker Sieber has developed a new polyamide family which can be produced from a byproduct of cellulose production – a successful example for a more sustainable economy with bio-based ...