Press and Media

For eight years now, the Fraunhofer Project Group for Materials Recycling and Resource Strategies IWKS has been successfully driving forward the securing of raw material supplies in Germany. The research group was founded under the umbrella of the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research and has been growing continuously ever since. As of April 8, it will be continued at its locations in Alzenau and Hanau as an independent Fraunhofer research institution under the name Fraunhofer IWKS.

On February 26th, 2019 in Brussels, the German Resource Research Institute GERRI invit-ed high-level representatives from politics, research and industry for a debate on Eu-rope’s path towards a circular economy. During the roundtable organized by the net-work of resource research organizations in Germany, the experts looked at challenges but also discussed different solutions to establish a closed-loop life cycle for products in Europe.

Researchers of the Fraunhofer Project Group IWKS met with the regional group of Technik ohne Grenzen e.V. (TeoG) in Alzenau. The aim was to improve the recycling and the working conditions for the dismantling of electronic waste in Africa - together with the locals.

More than 20 participants from industry, research and public institutions discussed sustainability and renewable energies on November 26, 2018.

Bioplastics are often associated with sustainable and environmentally friendly packaging. However, bioplastics are not just bioplastics.

Removal of complex phosphorus compounds such as phosphonates, phosphinates, phosphites, etc. from industrial process effluents with simultaneous phosphorus recovery through the use of boron-doped diamond electrodes and suitable precipitants or adsorbents. This is the aim of the "ElPhoDia" project funded by Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU).

Sorting material flows intelligently in real time is currently one of the greatest challenges in separation and sorting technology. The Fraunhofer Project Group IWKS is now addressing this issue.

Following the invitation of the Japanese raw materials and engineering company Kobelco, based in Kobe, Prof. Dr. Rudolf Stauber, Managing Director of the Fraunhofer Project Group for Materials Recycling and Resource Strategies IWKS, conducted a two-day workshop.

With the founding of an association, the German Resource Research Institute is taking the next step to further promote the bundling of raw material expertise from science and industry for the German economy.

For the first time, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft had its own booth at IMTS in Chicago, one of the world's largest industrial trade fairs. The Fraunhofer Project Group IWKS represented the Lighthouse Project "Criticality of Rare Earth Elements” at the show.