Project overview

The aim of the project is to develop an adsorption heat storage system that can store regenerative heat and provide temperatures above 100 °C, as required in the commercial and service sectors, for example.

Among other things, chitin is the main component of the exoskeleton of spiders. Research is being conducted into chitin-based materials that can be chemically modified to make them fireproof, mold-resistant, robust and - unlike synthetic polymers - compostable.

Prof. Dr. Hendrik Dubbe, Professor of Application and Process Engineering of Surface Coating at Esslingen University of Applied Sciences, is testing the application potential of a lithium-free, sustainable battery for use in e-cars in the LiFreBat project.

Research is being carried out into the potential of the calcifying properties of algae for various industrial applications, for example for the development of multiplying concrete or the development of calcium-containing minerals as alternative coatings for solar cells.

In the CZS Young Investigator Group, Dr. Kevin Maik Jablonka researches polymers at the interface between materials science and data science. Since 2023, he has been group leader at the Helmholtz Institute for Polymers in Energy Applications.

A junior professorship is being funded at the Institute for Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry at the University of Jena. By means of "artificial photosynthesis", more sustainable catalysts are to be developed compared to current ones based on e.g. platinum.

With the help of machine learning methods, measures for effective and economical emission reduction are being researched in the project. The digital twin of a production process is used to show ways to achieve climate-neutral production.

The aim of the project is to decarbonize the heat supply of existing buildings and thus dispense with fossil natural gas. To achieve this, cold local heating networks are designed bidirectionally and solar heat from the summer is stored seasonally in the ground and used in the winter.

DELIVER is a new concept at the interface of materials science, synthetic biology and data science. By means of cell programming and machine learning, wood-based materials with arbitrarily adjustable properties are to be produced.

Dr. Desirée Leistenschneider is a chemist and researches batteries. She studied and completed her doctorate at TU Dresden. After a postdoctoral phase at the University of Alberta (Canada), she now heads a junior research group at the University of Jena.