Reference projects

Funding: BMBF || Duration: April 2019 – March 2022 || In the “abonoCARE®” project, nine small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have joined forces with six research institutions in order to develop economic value chains for nutrient recycling from organic residues and to offer sustainable high-performance fertilizer products for efficient agriculture. For this purpose, different technologies for the processing and formulation of organic residues are being developed.

Funding: Fraunhofer and Max Planck cooperation program || Duration: January 2019 – December 2022 || The "eBioCO2n" project, which is being carried out jointly by Fraunhofer and Max Planck scientists, pursues an ambitious approach to converting CO2 into chemicals with electricity from renewable sources: Similar to photosynthesis, CO2 is to be fixed with electron-transmitting biocatalysts and then linked to further enzymatic conversion steps.

Funding: BMWi || Durationt: June 2018 – March 2021 || Membrane humidifiers play an important role in the fuel cell as external components for water management. In the AMBITION project, an extensive infrastructure and the necessary know-how were established to comprehensively characterize humidifier membranes. Thus, the water transfer of hollow fiber and flat membranes can now be determined automatically (24/7) and tools for rational membrane selection are available.

Funding: BMU || Duration: Novemver 2020 – October 2022 || India's fast-growing cities are faced with the task of modernizing their water supply and wastewater disposal systems. In order to support German companies in opening up the Indian market, the AQUA-Hub project is implementing two Water Innovation Hubs in selected "smart cities" and flanking them with demonstrations of German measurement technology.

Funding: »Fraunhofer vs. Corona« || Duration: October 2020 – September 2021 || Aerosols pose an increased risk of infection with SARS-CoV-2. This is where the "Virus Grill" project comes in. The aim is to inactivate viruses by heating the air, to reduce the probability of infection via droplets suspended in the ambient air. Virus Grill is a subproject of the AVATOR project exploring ways to reduce the risk of infection from aerosol-borne viruses in enclosed spaces.

Funding: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft || Duration: June 2014 – May 2018 || As part of Fraunhofer's “Theranostic Implants” lighthouse project, Fraunhofer IGB developed an albumin coating for titanium implants that significantly accelerates the adhesion of mesenchymal stem cells. The layers can be sterilized with standard methods (gamma sterilization, electron beam sterilization) without any loss of function.

Funding: BMBF || Duration: November 2020 – November 2023 || With fossil-based resources becoming more scarce, the textile industry has an ever growing need to identify and develop alternative raw materials for manufacturing textiles fibers. In the AlgaeTex project, researchers are striving to manufacture a variety of polymers using algae-based fatty acids as the main constituent. Their goal here is to develop polyesters and polyamides suitable for melt spinning processes, so they can be widely used in the textile industry.

Funding: BMBF || Duration: July 2021 – June 2024 || The Biosurfactants Innovation Alliance is the first strategic alliance of renowned companies and research institutions in Germany aiming at finding sustainable and scalable alternatives to chemically synthesized surfactants, which have so far been produced from fossil raw materials. Therefore, we are examining and developing the process engineering production of biosurfactants in the alliance using biotechnological methods based on domestic renewable raw materials and residues. Together with our project partners, we systematically investigate their potential applications – for example, as components of detergents and cleaning agents, in cosmetics, bioremediation, crop protection and food.

Duration: July 2014 – June 2017 || In an extensive study, Fraunhofer IGB investigated the potential of high-load digestion of sewage sludge for producing biogas, which can be used to generate electricity and heat. The experts at the Institute evaluated the overall potential of all wastewater treatment plants in Baden-Württemberg in size class 4.

In the "AquaBioTox" project, we at the Fraunhofer IGB, together with the project partners Berliner Wasserbetriebe, bbe Moldaenke and the Fraunhofer IOSB, are developing solutions for the continuous online monitoring of drinking water pipes with the aim of establishing a biological broadband sensor that reacts immediately and reliably to hazardous substances in the water and makes this visible by means of automatic image evaluation.

Funding: EU || Duration: November 2011 – October 2015 || The preparation of multilayered cell layers that can be supplied with nutrients via a delivery system similar to that of natural tissue is a hitherto unsolved challenge in regenerative medicine.

Funding: BMBF || Duration: July 2021 – June 2023 || Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have contaminated groundwater and soils at numerous sites due to their widespread industrial use (e.g. as extinguishing and wetting agents). Conventional remediation methods are complex and costly. Therefore, the AtWaPlas project aims to develop a new process for eliminating PFAS from groundwater, seepage water and washwater based on atmospheric plasma treatment.

Funding: BMBF || Duration: October 2014 – March 2018 || In the joint project Auto-loop, a new principle for the tissue-specific release of drugs will be developed using the example of inflammatory diseases. It is based on the fact that a drug will only be released at its target site when proteases correlated with the disease are present in a sufficiently high concentration and release the drug bound via a peptide chain from its carrier polymer. The cleavage sites for the respective proteases are defined by indication-specific linkers introduced using click chemistry.

Funding: BMEL || Durationt: March 2015 – August 2017 || For fermentatively produced second-generation fuels such as butanol, downstream processing is an energy-intensive and thus cost-intensive step. Through the combined use of optimized gas stripping and an osmosis-driven membrane process, a process has been developed that allows dewatering of the product stream with significantly reduced energy input. For this purpose, customized TFC flat membranes for forward osmosis were developed at the IGB.

Funding: EU, Horizon 2020 || Duration: October 2016 – September 2020 || BIOCLEAN addresses the urgent need to create a sustainable training network across academia, industry and the healthcare sector which will fill the gap in Europe and beyond to produce highly skilled multi-disciplinary young scientists competent in chemistry, engineering and experimental wet lab biology. BIOCLEAN will deliver this network of young scientists who can apply their proven skill sets gained during the project life time to solve industrial and healthcare sector real life biofilm management challenges.

Funding: BMBF || Duration: November 2017 – November 2018 || A transformation of our economy to sustainable production methods with closed cycles and sustainable technologies seems more urgent than ever. In the BIOTRAIN project, six Fraunhofer Institutes have therefore investigated the potential and requirements of a "biological transformation of industrial value creation", in particular with regard to a sustainable way of doing business.

Funding: Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment, Climate Protection and the Energy Sector; European Union || Duration: October 2021 – March 2024 || The EU and the state of Baden-Württemberg are providing around 5.9 million euros in funding for the construction of a biowaste refinery on the site of the municipal biogas fermentation plant operated by Abfallwirtschaft Rems-Murr AöR (AWRM) in Backnang. In the future, one ton of biowaste per day will be processed here into products and raw materials such as fibers, flower pots, fertilizer and biogas.

Funding: Fraunhofer || Duration: June 2014 – May 2018 || Electronic components in implants must be encapsulated, on the one hand, to ensure that they are protected from the corrosive effect of the environment in the body and, on the other hand, to ensure they do not release any compounds into the tissue. To this end, Fraunhofer IGB has developed biocompatible coatings that are only a few micrometers in thickness and constitute a good barrier to metal ions and water, within the scope of the Fraunhofer Lighthouse Project ”Theranostic implants”. The excellent barrier effect and mechanical stability is achieved here through multiple layers of inorganic and organic coating, with high levels of cohesion in bonding between the layers.

Funding: BMBF || Duration: January 2016 – December 2017 || Fraunhofer IGB searches for new reaction routes and catalysts which can make the production of amines more sustainable. In the BMBF-funded Bi-Amin project BioCat branch in Straubing cooperate with the Technical University of Munich and industrial partners to develop a biotechnological process.

Funding: BMBF || Duration: June 2017 – May 2020 || The aim of the part of the project worked on at Fraunhofer was the optimization of the synthesis of bio-based acrylic acid from activated lactic acid derivatives. The project partner Auro has investigated the possible use of bio-based acrylic acid in the company's products.

Funding: BMWi; IGF; AiF || Duration: April 2018 – March 2020 || In the BioActiveMaterials project, concepts are being developed to replace conventional, mineral oil-based and non-recyclable food packaging with biobased multilayer composites. These new materials should exhibit suitable barrier values for oxygen, water vapor and mineral oils. Furthermore, they should have antioxidant and antimicrobial properties in order to additionally protect the packaged food as well as the packaging itself.

Funding: ERA CoBioTech; ERA Net Cofund on Biotechnologies; BMBF; EU || Duration: April 2018 – March 2021 || The aim of the BioDiMet project is the development of a robust and straightforward biocatalytic methyltransferase toolbox that can be applied for the selective synthesis of novel bioactives or precursors in an industrial setting. BioDiMet will use enzyme cascade reactions involving S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM)-dependent methyltransferases (MTs) combined with a cofactor supply/recycling system in order to selectively methylate target compounds. Structural diversification of selected substrates will yield novel products with new functional properties.

Funding: BMBF || Duration: March 2021 – February 2023 || BioFraMe is an innovative, broadly applicable supporting material for the preparation of bio based heterogeneous metal catalysts. The composition and properties of the supporting materials and the loading with desired metals can easily be tailored to the planned applications based on the selection of the starting materials.

Funding: EU || Durationt: July 2022 – June 2026 || Viruses and viral vectors represent a new class of therapy that has enormous potential to treat or even cure diseases such as genetic defects or cancer. To make them more widely clinically available, developments are needed for their efficient biotechnological production. In the EU project BioProS, a continuous and real-time sensor technology for the detection of viral activity is being developed and combined with other analytes as a platform technology.

Funding: EU || Duration: January 2017 – December 2017 || In the EU project Bio-QED, Fraunhofer IGB and its branch institute Fraunhofer CBP are conducting research into fermentative production processes to produce basic chemicals and regarding the scale-up of the processes. The Institute is concentrating in particular on the itaconic acid value chain. In 2017, the Fraunhofer CBP held a demonstration workshop on this topic in which project highlights and results were presented.

Funding: ERA-NET Industrial Biotechnology 2nd Joint Call || Duration: March 2011 – February 2014 || Surfactants form an integral part of our everyday life with applications reaching far beyond our hygienic needs ranging from asphalt over food to fuel additives all the way to compounds with antibiotic activities. We aim at an increased replacement of petro-based surfactants by biosurfactants generated form renewable resources.

Funding: Fraunhofer; Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labour and Housing || Duration: June 2019 – December 2021 || For the economic use of biological odour sensors, a new platform technology is being developed in the project "Biohybrid olfactory and taste sensory systems" that automatically produces cell-based biosensors. The biosensors could give machines a sense of smell and be further developed for various applications, such as the detection of explosives, the detection of gas leaks or the diagnosis of diseases based on the breath of patients. The project represents a prototypical use case for the Fraunhofer strategic initiative "Biological Transformation", in which the institutes IGB and IPA are increasingly focusing on the combination of biological and technical systems.

Funding: Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung || Duration: March 2020 – February 2023 || Guaranteeing clean air and clean water in a sustainable way is of fundamental importance for the health and quality of life of humans and animals. Filters are usually used to reduce pollutant emissions. The project “Bionic filters – simulation-based design of additively manufactured porous structures” (BiFi) aims to develop highly innovative, intelligent filters with optimized bionic structures that are significantly better than the products currently available on the market in terms of both filtration and energy efficiency. At Fraunhofer IGB, antistatic, oil- and water-repellent coatings were applied to the printed filters to optimize the surface properties.

Funding: BMU || Duration: February 2009 – December 2017 || In the project, which is funded by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Fraunhofer IGB has developed a plant to treat the biogas produced at the wastewater treatment plant in Franca, Brazil, to natural gas quality. The purified biomethane will be used to power the water supplier's own fleet of vehicles.

Funding: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft || Duration: March 2021 – December 2021 || UV-C radiation is becoming increasingly established as an effective sterilization technology and is being used to an ever greater extent in everyday situations. The Competence-Center for the Assessment of Products with Ultraviolet Sterilization, “CAmPUS UV-C,” brings together the UV-C expertise of three Fraunhofer institutes, the IBP, IGB and IPA, in a service platform offering specialized development, testing and consulting for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Fraunhofer IGB brings its expertise in the areas of material characterization, radiation measurement and microbiology to the table in order to carry out physical investigations into UV-C technologies and their sterilization performance.