Environment and Climate Protection

The Environment and Climate Protection business area develops systemic solutions in integrated environmental protection and for the energy transition of industry, cities and regional authorities, both in Germany and abroad. Our activities in this field comprise the development of new concepts and processes as well as specific solutions and products. Our aim is to achieve the greatest possible efficiency in the use of resources by taking into account the ideas of a circular economy and climate neutrality as well as an assessment of sustainability.

Fraunhofer IGB is active in the development of:

• Innovations and solutions in water and wastewater treatment as well as water management,
• processes for generating biogas and biohydrogen from organic waste and residues,
• solutions that recover and reclaim nutrients and valuable substances from wastewater, organic waste and residues,
• processes for gentle drying of various organic raw and residual materials,
• torrefaction of organic waste fractions to produce soil conditioners,
• separation processes on the molecular and atomic level for the recovery of precious metals, and rare earth compounds,
  
• humidifier membranes for water management in fuel cells and polymer electrolyte membranes (PEM) for electrolyzers,
• membranes for efficient gas separation, e.g. for CO₂ capture and storage, or for membrane reactors (e.g. syngas production) as well as
• tailored surfaces and particles for environmental applications such as adsorption of pollutants.

With our biological and biotechnological developments, further empowered by the latest digital innovations, Fraunhofer IGB drives innovation in environmental technology and the industrial transformation towards a sustainable and circular bioeconomy.