Dr. Andrea Gassmann, Dr. Gert Homm and Dr. Emanuel Ionescu on the ciruclar economy

What is the circular economy? How can CIRCONOMY^® Hubs contribute to it? What is next for the initiative? And what added value does the work being done in CIRCONOMY^® Hubs bring? In “Four questions to...”, we regularly interview participants in the CIRCONOMY^® initiative. What is the circular economy? How can CIRCONOMY® Hubs contribute to it? What is next for the initiative? And what added value does the work being done in CIRCONOMY® Hubs bring? In “Four questions to...”, we regularly interview participants in the CIRCONOMY® initiative. This time with Dr. Andrea Gassmann, Dr. Gert Homm and Dr. Emanuel Ionescu from the Fraunhofer IWKS.

(1) What does the circular economy mean to you?

• Designing materials and products for the longest possible useful life; extend product life cycles
• Design for circularity for materials and products
• Transfer of waste materials/by-products/used products into new “waste-to-product” products in a cost-effective manner

(2) CIRCONOMY^® Hubs are a new infrastructure for the circular economy. How can you and your institute contribute to this?

• Technology development:
  • Recovery of high-quality (according to the requirement profile in the product) secondary valuable materials (metallic, inorganic, organic) from complex material flows (e.g. electronic waste, used batteries, plastic waste, residues from the food industry)
  • Material design/material synthesis e.g. alloy development and functionalized hemicelluloses

• Consulting services:
  • Concept development e.g. for take-back systems for recirculation
  • Process modelling
  • Sustainability assessment
  • Analytical measurements: elucidation of structures from macro to nano, chemical analytics, measurement/assessment of property profiles e.g. optical, magnetic

(3) The CIRCONOMY^® Hubs are set to be implemented in 2022: What are your hopes for the future?

• Faster testing/implementation of promising approaches through networking of interested partners and stakeholders
• Easier consortium formation for joint proposals in public tenders
• Generation of bilateral projects with industry partners
• Direct projects financed by larger industry consortia, depending on the financing structure of the hub
• Innovations through co-creation with industry partners (Fraunhofer as a whole as the supplier rather than an individual institute)

(4) What added value can the Fraunhofer partners who participate in CIRCONOMY^® Hubs expect?

• Straightforward advice/help and exchange of experiences
• Targeted networking
• Joint, more powerful project acquisitions with added value for all partners