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The availability of water of suitable quality is a growing challenge worldwide. A number of processes are available for the treatment and processing of industrial and municipal wastewater, which are adapted to the substances contained in the wastewater. The treatment of wastewater containing salts represents a particular challenge, as the separation of salt and water requires a very high technical and energy input. By separating salts from water, they can be put to further use and the discharge of saline wastewater into water bodies can be reduced or even avoided altogether. Using the example of saline leachates from residual waste piles in the potash industry, the “HaSiMem” project will investigate whether the membrane distillation process is advantageous compared to the classic form of evaporation of saline wastewater. The joint project, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, is headed by K-UTEC AG Salt Technologies and will be implemented over the next three years with the partners Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS, Solarspring GmbH, K+S AG and LMBV mbH.

Prof. Alexander Michaelis, Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS, received the prestigious "Acta Materialia Hollomon Award for Materials and Society" and the "Rustum Roy Lecture Award". Both awards recognize his commitment to the materials sciences for the benefit of society.

The separation of substance mixtures is a basic technical and biological operation. Nature uses a variety of membranes for substance separation, such as vessel walls, cell walls or membrane proteins. In industrial and technical applications, however, conventional separation processes still dominate: distillation/rectification, extraction, crystallization or adsorption/absorption. Compared to these processes, membrane separation requires only a fraction of the energy. With the material properties adapted to the separation task in each case, membranes are an ideal solution for many applications. It is worth investing in membrane development. This is what DGMT Deutsche Gesellschaft für Membrantechnik e.V., VDI Verein Deutscher Ingenieure e.V. and the ProcessNet specialist group Membrane Technology of DECHEMA Gesellschaft für Chemische Technik und Biotechnologie e.V., advocate in their current position paper. The results of the investigations of the German Ceramic Society (DKG) and the German Society for Materials Science (DGM) have also been included here.

On March 28th, 2022, Prof. Dr. Henning Heuer, head of department Systems for Testing and Analysis at Fraunhofer IKTS, signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Dresden. The contractual partner is Samyong Inspection Engineering from Seoul, Korea. The agreement is aimed at close R&D collaboration to increase safety of nuclear fuel rods using non-destructive testing (NDT).

Glass objects which glow in the dark, glass containers that heat up and cool down, or glass control knobs and switches that eliminate viruses and bacteria by themselves – all this seems to completely contradict our everyday experience of what glass can do. And yet, it is now within reach. To create such functionalized and precision-molded glasses, research teams at Fraunhofer IKTS in Dresden have transferred their experience with ceramic processes to glass manufacturing.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS recently became a partner in the TWI Innovation Network (TWIIN), a European program to promote research and technology.

Our colleague Johanna Sonnenberg talks about her personal and professional involvement in the fight against microplastics, how an underwater vehicle is supposed to help, and what everyone can do to prevent pollution of the sea and from beaches.

On January 5th, 2022, Dr. Roland Weidl, head of the Battery Innovation and Technology Center BITC, signed a Memorandum of Understanding on behalf of IKTS Institute Director Prof. Alexander Michaelis. The contractual partners are Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) and Korea Shipbuilding and Offshore Engineering (KSOE). In the MoU, the cooperating parties agree on close R&D collaboration in the fields of hydrogen, fuel cells (especially SOFC), e-fuels and digitalization.

The joint project LEGIOPLAS, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), is developing a mobile measurement system for on-site analysis of Legionella contamination in drinking water.

Germany must become climate-neutral by 2045 – that is the target set by the German government's Climate Protection Act. This ambitious goal requires the transformation of energy generation to 100% renewable energy from wind, solar, hydropower and biomass. This energy generation, which will be more and more volatile in the future, requires stabilizing measures to ensure a secure energy supply. Electricity storage in batteries can enable this transformation and will become increasingly important. In the project “KeNaB-ART” (ceramic-based sodium battery with beta-aluminate for applications above room temperature), the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research is supporting the development of new ceramic sodium batteries for the storage of renewable energy in the funding initiative “Battery 2020 Transfer”.