structural development

Hello!

, ENO project manager Heike Schleussner reports on her exciting work, in which a lot is already being done today with the solutions of tomorrow. For example:

What will we use to build vehicles and buildings in the future?

In the future, the materials should no longer be oil-based and energy-intensive.

The still small start-up from Görlitz, Eco SoftFibre , is already showing the way impressively and uses innovative technologies to manufacture heat and sound insulating materials from biological residues such as leather shavings.

But what potential has so far been ignored by using biogenic residues from agriculture and forestry?

In Germany, up to 200 million tons of suitable fibrous residues accumulate every year. This is, for example, sawn timber from the sawmill, grain straw, chaff, shives and a lot of green waste, which according to BioRest usually remain unused or are burned directly . The recycling of wood residues in Germany has so far been just 1.5 percent . For comparison: the annual demand for plastics for higher-quality and durable products for technical applications and in the construction sector is "only" 8.3 million tons (2020) .

With its coalition agreement, the new federal government has now definitely declared climate-neutral construction , including its materials and cascading use, In addition to a national timber construction, lightweight construction and raw material security strategy, innovative materials and technologies are to be used in the future to promote climate protection goals and thus also sustainable construction.

At the end of last/beginning of this year I was able to find out how we can implement these goals in our region with a very committed, dynamic and enthusiastic team from the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences (HSZG ), the Fraunhofer IWU and theThis email address is being protected from spam bots! To display JavaScript must be turned on. and Grantiro figure out. Since our task as business development and structural developer is not research for the sake of science, it was clear from the start: we are developing a project from business for business - big time!  

In this way, we actually managed to win over the manufacturer of complex machines and systems for, among other things, harvesting and processing technology, Kluge GmbH , as consortium leader, another 14 permanent consortium partners and an additional 10 associated partners from Upper Lusatia and beyond for the These range from small craftsmen to large corporations.

On the one hand, to develop new composite materials and processes from within the framework of the Upper Lusatia timber construction initiative on the other hand , to make biogenic residues from forestry and agriculture usable in such a way that, with the help of innovative processes, high-performance and at the same time sustainable composite materials for vehicles and buildings can be produced , a tangible group of entrepreneurs has emerged as a cross-sectional project with the HSZG . Accompanied by science, this faces major challenges of climate-friendly, sustainable production - of course with the aim of developing marketable products and achieving added value for the company itself, but also for the region.

It was great to see the dynamism with which the core team faced up to the ever-changing tasks and ideas. Thank you very much for allowing me to be there, from the initial idea to the thrill shortly before submitting our sketch - but of course most of the praise goes to the HSZG, Fraunhofer and SKS structural change Lausitz, who have really achieved great things here with their specialist expertise .

What exactly is behind it, what materials and procedures are involved in concrete terms and which partners are involved here, we would like to announce only when we have made it into the first funding round, and also to underline the whole concept in even more detail and then to be able to go into implementation. 

We will keep you up to date at this point!

Best regards -

your Heike and Jasna