In the presence of Saxony-Anhalt's Minister for Science Prof. Dr. Armin Willingmann and State Secretary Stefanie Pötzsch, the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS has officially opened its new "Technology Platform for Circular Economy and Process Engineering TKV" at the Bitterfeld-Wolfen chemical park.
The TKV is designed to support companies in developing efficient processes — from scaling and testing under industrial conditions through to practical application. Saxony-Anhalt's Ministry of Economic Affairs, Tourism, Agriculture and Forestry is funding the establishment of this new research infrastructure with €4.5 million.
With the TKV, Fraunhofer IKTS is further expanding its research and development activities in Saxony-Anhalt. The platform has been based at the Technology and Business Incubation Center Bitterfeld-Wolfen since July 1, 2026. Over the next four years, laboratories and pilot facilities will be built up there step by step, creating an infrastructure that brings companies, research, and education closer together. Working alongside the chemical industry, innovative companies from across the region, and research partners, the aim is to develop application-oriented, future-ready, and economically viable solutions and bring them into practice more quickly.
Bridging Research and Industrial Application
The chemical industry hub of central Germany faces considerable challenges: international competition, dependencies within value chains, high energy and raw material prices, and the economically demanding shift toward more climate-friendly production. Addressing these challenges requires new technologies, viable business models, and closer collaboration between research and industry. This is exactly where the TKV comes in: it aims to make Fraunhofer IKTS's process engineering expertise — spanning resource use, raw materials, energy, water, circular economy, and bioeconomy — more accessible to regional companies. This creates low-threshold access to the institute's broad technology portfolio, including hands-on development and testing environments, complemented by systems analysis and modeling for a holistic assessment of technological developments.
"Many technological innovations fail during the transition from lab scale to industrial scale. In Saxony-Anhalt, shaped by a chemical industry with a long tradition alongside agile SMEs, we are closing a strategically important gap and strengthening the transfer from research into application," explains Dr. Daniela Pufky-Heinrich, Head of the Center for Economics and Management of Technologies CEM at Fraunhofer IKTS.
Through collaboration with Fraunhofer IKTS, companies at the chemical park and across the wider region gain the opportunity to scale research findings more quickly into economically viable industrial solutions and to test new processes under practical conditions all the way through to full industrial implementation.
Applications in Chemicals, Recycling, and Water Management
One key focus of the TKV is membrane-based solutions for treating complex process water and wastewater. A further central area is the recovery of critical raw materials from solid and liquid industrial residues.
Dr.-Ing. Burkhardt Faßauer, Head of the Circular Technologies and Water department at Fraunhofer IKTS, emphasizes: "In a functioning circular economy, industrial residues and process water are not waste but valuable resources. Our goal is to treat these materials so that they can be reused at the chemical park or in neighboring industries, or applied in other industrial processes. This saves resources and reduces disposal costs."
This approach covers both inorganic and organic residues. The utilization of organic residues in particular creates a substantive link to Saxony-Anhalt's dynamic bioeconomy sector. The platform's offering is further complemented by robust ceramic sensors — for example, for monitoring corrosion-prone containers and pipelines — together with data science algorithms for their analysis. This enables scalable real-time monitoring and more precise process control, even under demanding industrial conditions.
Perspectives from State Government
Prof. Dr. Armin Willingmann, Saxony-Anhalt's Minister for Science, Energy, Climate Protection and the Environment: "Excellent research needs not only bright minds but also places where new ideas can be tested. The Technology Platform for Circular Economy and Process Engineering is exactly such a place — open to collaboration, scientific curiosity, and technological innovation. The technology platform also allows us to bring science and industry even closer together, making both more attractive and more competitive."
Stefanie Pötzsch, State Secretary at Saxony-Anhalt's Ministry of Economic Affairs, Tourism, Agriculture and Forestry: "Industrial transformation succeeds best where research, development, and companies work closely together. By funding the TKV, we are creating the infrastructure needed to bring circular economy innovations into industrial practice more quickly, strengthening the long-term competitiveness of our business location."
The project is being funded with €4,496,625 by Saxony-Anhalt's Ministry of Economic Affairs, Tourism, Agriculture and Forestry, and co-financed with European Union funds through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
Source: Fraunhofer IKTS
