FRAUNHOFER

Fraunhofer Institute for Chemica Technology (ICT) is one of the ca. 75 institutes of the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft für angewandte Forschung e.V. In Pfinztal near Karlsruhe we work with over 500 people within the four key competence areas chemical processes, energy and drive systems, explosive technology, safety and security and polymer engineering.
In the field of polymer engineering, we conduct application-oriented research focusing on the development of materials, processes and components for plastic products. Material recycling, and sustainability concepts for complete value chains, are currently important drivers in this market.
To achieve these aims we research new processes in polymer and additive synthesis, develop application-oriented sustainable materials and formulations for specific products, and optimize processing technologies adapted to these materials. Areas of application include the automotive and construction industries.
Within these development fields, fire retardancy is one of the functionalities which we focus on. We do carry out research on the synthesis of new fire retardants, on their and the commercially available fire-retardant compatibility to the recipes needed for the application and on the analysis of the fire-resistant performance of the additives and the polymer recipes. Furthermore we develop new concepts for the removal of banned fire retardants, e.g. the halogenated HBCD.
Previous work in these fields was carried out e.g. in the frame of Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe in the projects CREAToR, SURPASS and PLANETS.
In BIOSAFIRE we will build on this expertise to investigate the compatibility of the lignin and tannin products developed by VTT in thermoplastic materials for fire resistance in WP3. The thermoplastic material recipe will be developed for the implementation in the use case for home appliance production with Arcelik at industrial level. The evaluation of the case study will be carried out in WP4.