Fraunhofer Lighthouse Project "ShaPID"

Challenges and objective

By pooling their expertise in applied research, the nine Fraunhofer institutes cooperating in the lighthouse project “ShaPID” aim to provide targeted support to the chemical industry in its efforts to achieve challenging sustainability goals and, at the same time, to intensify the institutes’ R&D ties with one of the most innovative industrial sectors.

Solution approach

The lighthouse project aims to demonstrate that sustainable, green chemistry can be achieved through practical technological innovations in process intensification and digitalization. To this end, new technology developments in four complementary areas are being pursued on the basis of the internationally recognized “12 Principles of Green Chemistry":

• Synthesis, reaction technology and catalysis
• Continuous process technology and process engineering
• Modeling, simulation and process optimization
• Digitalization and automation

The application of these new methodologies and technologies will be demonstrated in practice on a technical scale using three reference processes that address different aspects of chemistry with high R&D intensity and added value:

1. “Green Plastics”: from CO₂ and biogenic raw materials to new polymers
2. “Green Monomers”: energy-efficient syntheses of monomers from non-fossil raw materials
3. “Efficient Building Blocks”: use of highly reactive compounds for atom-efficient synthesis

All processes follow the path from green raw materials to green process engineering and green products. Process development is closely accompanied by sustainability assessment and system analysis as well as REACh assessment and (eco)toxicity prediction.

The overarching strategic goal of the lighthouse project ShaPID is to establish Fraunhofer as a systemic research partner for green sustainable chemistry and to offer transfer services for methods and technologies of process intensification and digitalization from a single source. In this way, companies in the chemical industry and related sectors can receive targeted support in the realization of green and efficient chemical processes.

Contributions of Fraunhofer IGB in ShaPID

Related to the topic “Green Catalysis Technology”, Fraunhofer IGB develops novel catalysts for chemical, electrochemical and biotechnological processes, which are applied in the ShaPID demonstrator “Green Plastics”.  

• The electrocatalytic processes focus on the direct reduction of CO₂ to formic acid (formate salts) at gas diffusion electrodes (GDE). This work is conducted in close collaboration with Fraunhofer IMM, where a special electrochemical cell for this reaction is designed and built. 
• The biocatalytic systems to be developed are whole-cell catalysts, specifically bacterial production strains, which are transformed into customized cell factories using metabolic engineering and systems biotechnology approaches. Those production strains enable the targeted conversion of simple and inexpensive substrates, such as formate from electrocatalytic CO₂ reduction, into value-added products, such as monomers for plastic production. 
• Furthermore, chemical catalysts and processes for polymerization of the synthesis of important polymer building blocks  are developed in collaboration with Fraunhofer IAP.

In the area of “Smart Process Technology”, Fraunhofer IGB focuses on the application of the developed catalytic systems in processes and on their upscaling.  

• Microbial production strains are used in fermentation processes to convert C₁ substrates into monomers for plastics production. The process will be transferred to technical scale.
• Downstream processing approaches for the isolation and purification of products from fermentation broths are being established, in particular in collaboration with the Fraunhofer ICT. 

The processes are piloted in the ShaPID demonstrator “Green Plastics” with special production strains, substrates and target products.