Press releases and news 2015

The BioConSepT research project developed production processes based on non-edible biomass. In comparison to current processes for bioplastic production, they are not competing with food production and processes aim to be cheaper and more sustainable.

Today the Bio Based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI JU) launched a €6 million project entitled CARBOSURF with the aim to develop new processes and solve bottlenecks in the fermentative production of biobased biosurfactants and specialty carbohydrates. The new three-year project brings together 11 partners from 4 European countries: Research and Technology Organisations (RTOs), an open innovation pilot plant, four biotech SMEs and three large industries. The project received funding through the first call of the Bio Based Industries Joint Undertaking under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.

Under the leadership of Fraunhofer IGB and on the basis of a detailed review of the current situation, the Fraunhofer Morgenstadt Innovation Network is developing an innovation strategy to make the Georgian capital Tbilisi more sustainable. A precise roadmap indicating the path towards a city that is viable for the future will be available in ten months.

To meet the requirements of Asian cities, researchers are adapting an idea they have already applied in Germany for comprehensive water management: They are developing a concept for reducing water use, treating wastewater and extracting fertilizer for a strip of coastline in the Vietnamese city of Da Nang.

Loads of cosmetics like sunscreen lotions contain titanium dioxide. These nanoparticles are contentious. Experts suspect they may have harmful effects on people and the environment. But it is difficult to prove that the particles are in the lotions. Using a method developed by Fraunhofer researchers, the particles can now be calculated.

Currently IGB group manager and former IGVP-doctoral student Dr. Svenja Hinderer was awarded the German Students Award from the Körber Foundation for her doctoral thesis on the development of an electrospun heart valve replacement created from polymers and natural proteins that simulate the structural, mechanical and biochemical properties of natural valve leaflets.

Many products, including food supplements, cosmetics and biodiesel, are made from substances derived from microalgae. A fully automated pilot plant operated by Fraunhofer in Leuna is capable of producing microalgae on pilot scale. The concentration of algae in its reactors is five times higher than in conventional closed reactors. The researchers who designed the plant will be exhibiting it at the ACHEMA 2015 show in Frankfurt am Main from June 15 to 19 (Hall 9.2, Booth D64).

The EU project VascuBone was coordinated by the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB and has reached the end of a 5-year funding period. In March 2015, the partners of this international research consortium met at the Würzburg Congress Centre to discuss the results of this successful project. The focus of the meeting was the newly developed “VascuBone Toolbox” to apply advanced materials and tailor-made combinations to individualized bone defects.

Regenerative medicine uses cells harvested from the patient’s own body to heal damaged tissue. Fraunhofer researchers have developed a cell-free substrate containing proteins to which autologous cells bind and grow only after implantation. Samples of the new implants will be on show at the Medtec expo.

New types of membrane adsorbers remove unwanted particles from water and also, at the same time, dissolved substances such as the hormonally active bis-phenol A or toxic lead. To do this, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB imbed selective adsorber parti-cles in filtration membranes. From 24th to 27th March 2015, the IGB presents the membrane adsorbers and other innovative technologies for water treatment at the “Wasser Berlin International” Trade Fair and Congress. The Fraunhofer IGB is in Hall 2.2, Booth 422.