Traditional circular economy research has focussed, to a large extent, on new materials to underpin circularity, or methods to promote efficient material flows. Important, but often overlooked, is the aspect of behavioural change. Service based models, in which goods are never owned by consumers, have the potential to transform society for the good of everyone. In this context, distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) such as blockchain have received increasing attention as a potential catalyst for the transition to sustainability. DLTs can facilitate new business models and a new era of transparency, generating economies of trust, thereby potentially transforming prevailing economic and institutional systems. The project will focus on the role DLTs can play in facilitating this transformation, especially regarding the aspects of transparency in the value cycles and new circular business models around servitisation and the sharing economy.

New research tools will be developed to analyse and assess interventions, especially policy measures and digital technologies regarding their multi-dimensional performances from a full life cycle thinking perspective. A system dynamics (SD) model will be developed to help understand how servitisation and access systems, from the micro to macro level of intervention to consumer behaviours, react to the deployment of these technologies in the shift towards circularity, and further investigate the role of DLTs in the process. A multi-scale life cycle sustainability assessment framework to assess the impacts of DLTs, transparency and servitisation will be developed and coupled to the SD model, yielding a new consequential multi-scale life cycle sustainability assessment tool that can support policy development and be used to both guiding and evaluating interventions enabled by DLTs.

In order to achieve CO2 neutrality in Germany, the automotive industry is facing intensive efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions along the entire life cycle. One of the key levers is to increase secondary raw material quotas in vehicle and component production and thus close material cycles. The use of secondary materials in vehicle production is associated with major challenges in terms of material quality and cost-effectiveness. In addition to intelligent, automated dismantling processes, efficient preparation and sorting processes are also required to sort post-shredder products to automotive-grade quality. The economic and environmental impact must be determined along the entire process chain. The Chair of Circular Economy carries out the corresponding economic and ecological assessments of the individual processes in order to analyze the closed-loop recycling of end-of-life vehicles holistically.

The research project is being carried out by an interdisciplinary consortium of research and industry partners. Starting with investigations at the building level, the flexibility of use and adaptability of circular timber panel construction methods will be evaluated. At the component level, component connections are examined with the aim of dismantling and separability of the component layers down to the material level. On the material level, the cascade utilization of solid wood is the focus of the qualitative and quantitative evaluations. The characterization of the utilization options of the used wood on the material level contributes to the fact that the used wood can actually be supplied to a high-quality cascade utilization after the deconstruction of the cycle-appropriate construction. A holistic view across all levels allows the integration of digital technologies for the development of a digital material passport, with the aim of documenting and tracking components, connections and deconstruction options. On the basis of life cycle analyses, the evaluation of the ecological and economic effects is carried out in addition to the technical and material-scientific assessment. The investigation of innovative economic concepts from the circular economy, such as leasing or sharing models, round off the joint project, with a look into the future of modern timber construction. More information can be found here.

The necessary reduction of CO2 emissions in the automotive industry presents vehicle manufacturers and suppliers with the challenge of developing and producing sustainable vehicles and components. In addition to the increased use of secondary raw materials, this also requires new, sustainable material concepts for vehicle components. The research project pursues a holistic component and material development for plastics and metals in the exterior and interior areas. The Chair of Circular Economy supports the development of sustainable vehicle components in the interior, which are characterized by material reduction, easy dismantling, a focus on monomaterials and the use of sustainable raw materials. The individual components are evaluated and their systemic effects analyzed as part of economic and ecological assessments.

Hydrogen as a universal and essential chemical raw material and energy carrier contributes significantly to cross-sectoral decarbonization as a green alternative. H2Giga, one of the three German hydrogen lead projects, is conducting research with over 30 independent cooperation projects on increasing hydrogen production through water electrolysis by upscaling and series production of the most common electrolyzer types. 

The ReNaRe (Recycling – Sustainable Use of Resources) sub-project is developing recycling and utilization concepts to close the material cycles at the end of the life of alkaline, proton exchange membrane and high-temperature electrolysers. The consortium of industrial partners and research institutes provides technologies and approaches that can be used in particular to close the material cycles of critical raw materials, especially technology metals, after the utilization phase of a large-scale electrolyser. 

In addition to the purely technical concept, the end-of-life concepts are evaluated with a life cycle assessment and techno-economic assessment. Furthermore, the development of a concept to support the circular economy of electrolyser materials through digitalization is planned.