The aim of the cluster is to sustainably increase value creation from native beechwood through using the techniques of coupled production and cascade utilization to produce chemicals, materials and energy. The Fraunhofer CBP will assume a central role in the development, scale-up and industrial realization of production processes here.

The existing industrial structures in the region around the Leuna chemical site will be linked with the Fraunhofer CBP’s own external network, comprising the Chemistry / Plastics Cluster of Central Germany (2003), the Rottleberode Wood Cluster (2007) and the Leipzig Energy and Environmental Technology Cluster with its Bioenergy team (2010). The research side integrates bodies including the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM, Halle, the Fraunhofer pilot plant center (PAZ) for polymer synthesis and polymer processing at Schkopau ValuePark, the Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, the German Biomass Research Centre, the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research and the Leipzig Graduate School of Management (HHL).

Thus the cluster has cross-sector access to numerous specialists for all the various stages of value creation of a biobased economy. Their respective expertise spans the entire complex value creation chains constituting the bioeconomy and creates a nationally and internationally visible beacon for this new paradigm for economic activity.