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The Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS will take over the transparent ceramics division of CeramTec-ETEC, known under the brand name PERLUCOR^®, effective April 1, 2021. The institute is thus further expanding its expertise in the development of transparent ceramics.

Due to climate change and longer periods of drought, natural fresh water resources are becoming increasingly scarce. Nevertheless, several billion cubic meters of water are used annually for production processes in the manufacturing sector. The resource-saving use of water, especially in industrial production processes, is therefore crucial. This is where the "ReWaMem" project, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and led by the Kompetenznetzwerk Wasser und Energie e.V., comes in. Using the laundry and textile cleaning industry as a testing ground, the consortium intends to develop new technologies over the next three years that treat process wastewater in such a way that it can be fed back into the cleaning process as fresh water. The aim is to significantly reduce freshwater intake from rivers.

20 percent of the energy generated worldwide is lost through friction. Rolling and slide bearings are therefore used in many mechanical applications to reduce friction. However, rolling bearings have some disadvantages in terms of cost, weight and service life. Slide bearings, on the other hand, offer interesting solutions, but again have higher coefficients of friction. New friction-reducing materials and lubricants could save a large proportion of these friction losses in slide bearings. The greatest potential lies in the transportation and energy sector.

The greenBatt cluster, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, launched on March 3, 2021 with a digital kickoff. Closing raw material cycles within the battery life cycle and thus creating the foundation for sustainable electromobility is the mission of the cluster.

At the turn of the year, the EU Commission granted approval for the first vaccines to protect against SARS-CoV-2. Around 3 million doses of vaccine have been administered in Germany so far – but a specific antiviral therapy for the disease does not yet exist. This poses major challenges for healthcare systems worldwide, especially in the clinical treatment of severe courses of the disease. In the Fraunhofer joint project COPERIMOplus, machine learning algorithms will be used to model individual risks for disease and progression, and to derive prognoses. Fraunhofer IKTS is part of the consortium and cooperates closely with the clinical Immune Plasma Covid Trial IPCO conducted at the Universitätsklinikum Erlangen, which is funded by the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and investigates the treatment of severe courses of disease with convalescent plasma.

Recruiting, developing and retaining more women in applied research is an important goal of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. The Fraunhofer TALENTA funding program is working to achieve these goals. Two female IKTS researchers were successful with their applications and will now receive tailored support for their career goals.

Sewage treatment plants not only have to filter suspended solids from the wastewater, but also various pollutants such as pesticide residues or residues of active ingredients from medicines. For the detection of non-degradable pollutants, the company ECH Elektrochemie has developed the Anthroplas analyzer together with the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS. At this year's virtual trade fair analytica digital, Anthroplas received the Application Award 2020 of LABORPRAXIS in the category water & environmental analysis.

A direct conversion of ammonia into energy and the acceptance of this chemical compound as a synthetic fuel without CO₂ emissions - these are the goals of the recently launched EU project "HiPowAR".

In a recently started project, Fraunhofer IKTS, the Chair of Textile Technologies at Chemnitz University of Technology and the Institut für Holztechnologie Dresden (IHD) are developing processes to optimize wood-based materials for highly stressed applications, for example in the automotive or sports sectors, and thus contribute to reduce CO₂.

To give hope to those affected by bone defects: This is what researchers from the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery in Kiel, the University of Leipzig, University Medicine Rostock and Fraunhofer IKTS aim to do. As part of the “Hybrid-Bone“ project, they are developing personalizable ceramic bone replacement materials and structures for improved regeneration in the craniofacial region. Administratively supported by Starter GmbH, “Hybrid-Bone“ is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research with 1.5 million euros over a period of three years.