Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB
Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB

Schiestel, Thomas Dr. rer. nat.

Head of Innovation Field Membranes

Dr. Thomas Schiestel heads the IGB Innovation Field Membranes. He obtained his PhD on “Electrochemical Detection of Radionuclides in the Demolition Waste of Nuclear Power Plants” at Saarland University. During his postdoctoral stay at the Institute for New Materials in Saarbrücken, he focused on the development of nanoparticles for medical applications. After a short period at the Institute for Interfacial Engineering (IGVT), University of Stuttgart, he joined Fraunhofer IGB. Here, he is responsible for membrane development since 2003.

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  • Development of:

    • Humidifier membranes for fuel cells
    • Hollow-fiber membranes made of mixed conducting ceramics
    • Gas separation with mixed matrix membranes
    • Osmosis membranes for FO, PRO, RO
    • Filtration membranes (MF, UF, NF, membrane adsorbers)
    • Ionomer membranes for electrolysis and fuel cells

  • Professional career
    2019 – current Head of Innovation Field Membranes, Fraunhofer IGB
    2016 – 2019 Deputy Head of Department of Interfacial Engineering at Fraunhofer IGB
    2003 – 2019 Head of Membrane Group within the Department of Interfacial Engineering at Fraunhofer IGB
    2000 – 2003 Research associate at Institute for Interfacial Engineering, University Stuttgart
    1998 – 1999 Deputy Head of Department Life Science at Institute for New Materials, Saarbrücken
    1997 – 1998 Research associate within Department Nanocomposites at Institute for New Materials, Saarbrücken
    1995 – 1997 Research associate within Department Ceramics at Institute for New Materials, Saarbrücken

    • German Society for Membrane Technology (DGMT), member of advisory board
    • Deutsche Gesellschaft für Materialkunde e. V. (DGM, German Association for Materials Science), community committee “Hochleistungskeramik“, member working group “Keramische Membranen“
    • European Membrane Society, member  

  • Project title Project title long Funding source Period
    Phosphatfänger Phosphatfänger Fraunhofer-Zukunftsstiftung January 2023
    FLUID Fluorine-free humidifying membrane and innovative membrane winding element for cathode air humidification in PEM fuel cells BMWi September 2022 – August 2025
    SULFAMOS Sulfate depletion using forward osmosis and hollow fiber immersion modules BMBF May 2021 – October 2023
    H2Wind Self-sufficient offshore H2 electrolysis BMBF April 2021 – March 2025
    NexPlas NEXT GENERATION PLASMA CONVERSION: Integration of green hydrogen into plasma conversion of CO2 BMBF March 2021 – February 2024
    MegaLyseurPlus Development, design and construction of a modular, innovative and cost-efficient PEM electrolysis system of 1.25 MW with downstream compression plant BMBF November 2019 – May 2022
    AMBITION Application of Membranes in Automotive Fuel Cell Humidifiers – Performance, Stability, Pollutant Gas Tolerance BMWi June 2018 – March 2021
    HIKS Highly Integrated Cathode Subsystem: Development and production of a highly integrated air treatment module for use in automotive high-performance PEFCs with production-ready manufacturing technologies to realize automotive performance and cost targets BMWi August 2017 – December 2020
    POLINOM Polyvalent separations by flexible integration of active surfaces in membranes BMBF March 2017 – February 2020
    PiCK Plasma-induced CO2 conversion BMBF February 2017 – February 2020
    MAVO MEGA Functional membranes for save and energy efficient gas separation Fraunhofer January 2017 – December 2019
    Electricity as a Raw Material Fraunhofer Lighthouse Project "Electricity as a Raw Material" Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft August 2015 – September 2018
    BIOBUTANOL Innovative process combination for downstream processing of biobutanol BMEL March 2015 – August 2017
    Critical Rare Earths Fraunhofer Lighthouse Project "Critical Rare Earths" Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft November 2013 – November 2017
    Molecular Sorting Fraunhofer Markets Beyond Tomorrow Project "Molecular Sorting – Recovery of Metals" Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft July 2011 – October 2014