CIRCONOMY^® Hub Circular Carbon Technologies CCT

Fraunhofer UMSICHT in Sulzbach-Rosenberg, IGB in Straubing and IWKS in Alzenau are working on designing a hub for “circular carbon technologies” in Bavaria. The focus is on connecting energy and raw material processes – to exploit non-fossil carbon sources, for example – to recirculate and sequester carbon in products and to integrate these technologies into energy/economic cycles.

To counter climate change, we need to decarbonize energy generation and defossilize the raw materials sector. Both of these tasks can only be successfully carried out by transforming the economy and society from linear to circular value creation systems. Carbon and hydrogen are the most important connecting elements in this transformation.

The development of technologies and partnership structures will enable more sustainable production, use and reuse of products containing carbon. As well as sequestering carbon in products, this should also enable significant CO₂ savings in the energy, chemical industry and mobility sectors. 

The goal of the CCT CIRCONOMY^® Hub is to create demonstrators of circular carbon technologies in local application centers, operating them with the involvement of industry and promoting dialog between industry, science and society about the circular economy and bioeconomy. The medium- to long-term goal of the hub is to transfer the technologies developed to industrial use and to the existing, regional production and value creation networks.

At its core, the term “circular carbon technologies” refers to technologies that enable the energy system to be connected to the raw materials sector — with a focus on carbon. These include technologies:

• to exploit alternative, non-fossil carbon sources such as post-consumer waste through disruptive recycling technologies;
• to use, store and process CO₂;
• to process raw materials containing carbon through chemical and/or biological conversion and synthesis processes;
• to sequester carbon in products for the long term;
• to reclaim strategic and critical raw materials;
• to integrate the energy and raw-materials sector systemically through key technologies such as fuel cells, electrolyzers and plasmas.

Another important aspect of the CIRCONOMY^® Hub relates to the transfer of knowledge and innovation for the areas of technology addressed. In this respect, the hub is the element that connects science, industry and society and organizes long-term dialog between the groups involved. Outwardly, the cluster aims to position itself internationally as an innovation network for the circular economy and bioeconomy.