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2024/5/24

Sustainable products and processes of Fraunhofer IVV at ACHEMA

From June 10-14, 2024, the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging IVV will be exhibiting at ACHEMA in Frankfurt am Main at the booth of the Fraunhofer Chemistry Alliance in Hall 6.0, Booth D49. In line with this year's trade fair motto "INSPIRING SUSTAINABLE CONNECTIONS", the Fraunhofer IVV will be presenting high-performance, plant-based alternatives to mineral oil-based lubricants and lubricant additives as well as an innovative GC sensor system for the efficient quality assurance of processes and materials.

A total of 15 institutes from the Fraunhofer Chemistry Alliance will be exhibiting at the joint stand. The focus will be on "Accelerating green chemistry", "Digitizing chemical processes", "Empowering circularity", "Enhancing safety", "Facilitating scale-up" and "Improving efficiency".

High-performance biolubricants and additives

When developing high-performance, plant-based alternatives to mineral oil-based lubricants and lubricant additives, the Fraunhofer IVV focuses on the holistic and sustainable utilization of raw materials. For the production of biolubricants and additives, the Fraunhofer IVV therefore mainly uses industrial residues that were previously disposed of unused. Vegetable oils or side streams from vegetable oil refining and aqueous systems are used as the base fluid for biolubricants. Enzymatic processes are used to improve the technofunctional properties of vegetable oil-based lubricants. This positively influences the lubricating effect, viscosity and solubility of additives through mild and targeted processing. For water-based biolubricants, the Fraunhofer IVV controls the technofunctional properties, such as thermal and physical stability and viscosity, through the use of specific biopolymers.

Secondary plant substances or plant proteins that naturally have highly functional properties are suitable as a basis for the production of bio-based additives. The Fraunhofer IVV already supports companies in the selection of raw materials and develops extraction processes that are specifically adapted to the raw material and the desired target application. In addition to characterizing the chemical and functional additive properties, the institute formulates the additives into the lubricant fluid and tests the interactions with other formulation components. The base fluid and the added additives are matched to each other for the respective area of application in such a way that high-performance bio-based alternatives to mineral oil-based lubricants are created.

Instrumental measurement of odors - miniaturized measuring systems and artificial intelligence for rapid assessment of product quality

The Fraunhofer IVV develops measurement systems and AI algorithms that enable rapid odor assessment of raw materials and consumer goods. At the trade fair, the institute will be presenting a demonstrator for application-specific gas chromatography systems. The use of low-cost miniaturized components, e.g. gas sensors, enables not only a reduction in system size, but also in system costs. The system properties can be adapted to the specific requirements of most applications with the help of a modular system. In addition, the system has algorithms for data analysis, which enable the automatic determination of the measured substances via a database comparison, as well as algo-rithms with which the odor effect of the detected substances can be predicted. The two software systems can also be used for the evaluation of laboratory analyses and offer the possibility of carrying out a very powerful measurement of product quality largely automatically. On this basis, application-specific systems will then be developed that can also reliably and continuously monitor certain odorous substances during the ongoing process. This enables continuous quality assurance, particularly in the area of new processes for the closed-loop recycling of plastics and for alternative biogenic materials.

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