CIRCONOMY® Hub

Welcome to the project

CIRCONOMY® Hub

Sustainable production, sustainable consumption and a circular economy require systemic and technological solutions, which are created in innovation networks. Fraunhofer proposes building a network of CIRCONOMY^® Hubs across Germany: These hubs are a new, agile instrument for cooperation on the basis of a shared mission and a reliable data space. They create added value regionally, nationally and internationally. In each hub, Fraunhofer institutes work with their partners in industry, science, politics and society on a mission not just to contribute to the circular economy, but to develop innovations for sovereign value cycles, climate neutrality, circularity and bioeconomy.

On this page you can read about how circularity is created out of shared values, cooperation and projects.

CIRCONOMY^® is the Fraunhofer brand for solutions, capacities and expertise for the circular economy. This brand represents shared values, strategies, target visions and, above all, innovation projects that put the great mission of “transformation to the circular economy” into practice.

CIRCONOMY^® Ticker

Building Materials and the Climate: Constructing a New Future

Under the premise that the world wants to achieve its goals for net-zero emissions from the construction sector by mid-century, there is an urgent need for action regarding the development of new models for collaboration on the decarbonization of building materials. We must pursue the following paths together:

1) Avoiding the extraction and production of raw materials by creating a circular economy

2) Shifting to circularly managed material practices through the use of ethically produced, low carbon, earth and bio-based building materials.

3) Optimizing methods to radically decarbonize conventional materials.

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Our offer

Services

Web services can be tested directly on a website. Techno-consulting helps keep innovation projects on track and successful.

Our services

CIRCONOMY^® Hubs

The concepts for the first CIRCONOMY^® Hubs are already being created, and circular ecosystems are forming. Be there as CIRCONOMY® Hubs shape the transformation.

Hubs overview

News

31.07.2025

Sustainably produced methanol from the Carbon2Chem® joint project is entering industrial application

In the Carbon2Chem^® joint project, CO₂ from industrial exhaust gases is converted into sustainable methanol with the help of hydrogen. This methanol is now being used in the "Power2Polymers" project: It is first processed into paraformaldehyde and then into novel polyols, which in turn form the basis for adhesives, coating materials, lubricants and sealants.

Press release

28.07.2025

Keeping plastics in the cycle with the Fraunhofer IVV's solvent-based recycling process

The Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging IVV will be demonstrating how plastics can be successfully recovered from complex plastic mixtures at the K trade fair for plastics and rubber from October 8-15 in Düsseldorf. With the solvent-based recycling process developed at the Fraunhofer IVV, a wide variety of plastics from packaging, but also from the automotive, electronics, construction and textile sectors, can be recycled and processed into high-purity plastic recyclates.

Press release

02.06.2025

AI: A game changer for plastic packaging

In the KIOptiPack innovation lab, researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging IVV are working with 51 partners from in-dustry and the research sector to develop innovative AI-driven optimization tools and a data space that connects all of the stakeholders in the packaging industry and their data. The goal is to use AI tools to recycle plastic packaging in the future.

Press release

14.05.2025

Steel mill slag for solar energy

The new STARS research project started with a kick-off in March with the aim of making steel mill slag usable as a raw material for the production of high-quality end products for solar thermal processes over the next three years. The project partners German Aerospace Center (DLR) (lead), thyssenkrupp MillServices & Systems GmbH and LWK-PlasmaCeramic GmbH are researching sustainable solutions for a green circular economy. Fraunhofer UMSICHT is evaluating the new products and processes to be developed from an ecological perspective. The project is funded by the EU and the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Press release