Research Projects from the Annual Report

Innovative manufacturing technologies, e.g. for large-area displays, enable the cost-effective production of units consisting of thousands of interconnected semiconductor devices by miniaturization, additive manufacturing, parallelization and self-alignment. The objective of the "micro-CPV" joint project is to develop a concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) module based on these technologies. This shall enable high PV performance while at the same time exploiting cost reduction potentials in production. | Duration: 04/2020 - 12/2024

Project in the Business Area: Power Electronics, Grids and Smart Systems; Topic: Energy System Analysis; Duration: 09/2019 - 12/2022

German steel mills are responsible for around 6% of Germany's CO2 emissions. Combined under the generic term "steel mill gases", large quantities of process gases rich in hydrogen and carbon oxides (CO2 and CO) are produced in various sub-steps of steelmaking. Currently, steel mill gases are mainly used thermally, i.e. to generate electricity and heat. In the BMBF-funded Carbon2Chem® project, partners from industry and research are investigating various scenarios for using these steel mill gases as materials and closing the carbon cycle. In the subproject L-II, Fraunhofer ISE is investigating methanol synthesis from steel mill gases. This serves to demonstrate two essential building blocks of the energy system transformation: reduction of emissions and sector coupling. | Duration: 06/2020 - 05/2024

Heat pumps are an effective solution for reducing energy consumption and the environmental impact of buildings, and for introducing renewable energy into the heat supply. However, the actual efficiency of heat pumps in practice does not always meet expectations. In addition to high occurring heat losses, the energy efficiency is reduced by an inappropriate system design, by misparameterization of the heat pump control and by undetected operating deficits. Therefore, the subject of the "AI4HP" project is the development of a new generation of "intelligent heat pumps", which adaptively adjust to changing boundary conditions with the help of artificial neural networks and thus increase energy efficiency while maintaining user comfort. | Duration: 09/2021 - 08/2024

Project in the Business Area: Hydrogen Technologies and Electrical Energy Storage, Energy-Efficient Buildings, Topic: Battery System Technology, Thermal Storage for Buildings, Duration: 01/2021 - 06/2024

Climate change has become a tangible reality in Germany in recent years. Heatwave summers and low precipitation in winters have led to massive problems in agriculture in many places. Protected cultivation under foils is a current trend, causing additional costs and waste problems. In this project, highly transparent organic solar cells will be developed that allow visible light, which is important for plants, to pass through and use the infrared portion to generate electricity. These could make it possible to simultaneously generate the urgently needed solar power for a successful energy and mobility turnaround from the film covers that are intended to protect plants from heavy rain, hail, sunburn and desiccation. | Duration: 09/2021 - 07/2024

The development of new fuel cell materials and fabrication processes requires a deep understanding of the complex interaction between the transport processes of the reactants/products, the electrochemical reaction and the microstructure of the active layers. The development of improved fuel cell models in different dimensions and their validation based on experimental data is the goal of the project. | Duration: 06/2019 - 06/2024

An important form of propulsion in the future will be powered by fuel cells. However, the development focus has shifted significantly from passenger cars to freight and heavy duty traffic. At the same time, this increases the expectation of the service life of fuel cells by a factor of five to ten. This aspect is being investigated by the FC-RAT research project coordinated by Fraunhofer ISE. The understanding of the aging processes is to be significantly expanded and deepened. | Duration: 01/2021 - 06/2024

Project in the Business Area: Solar Thermal Power Plants and Industrial Processes, Topic: Water Treatment and Separation, Duration: 06/2020 - 05/2024

With the phase-out of coal-fired power generation, not only will large amounts of power generation capacity be lost, but also gigawatts of thermal capacity in district heating networks that will have to be replaced by low-CO2 alternatives. Large-scale heat pumps at former power plant sites that feed heat into existing district or local heating networks are a promising alternative to decentralized solutions, especially in densely built-up urban areas. The project aims to reduce the barriers to the timely integration of large-scale heat pumps into district heating systems, both from a technical and an economic point of view. | Duration: 10/2021 - 09/2025