Empowering Circularity

In order to safeguard humanity's livelihoods, the linear economy of the past is gradually being transformed into a circular economy. This development is exerting enormous pressure on the chemical and plastics industries to reform and is leading to new products and business models.
 

This involves value chains based on minerals, metal ores, biomass, fossil raw materials, water, air and soil as well as the complex functions of ecosystems. The concept of the "circular economy" (CE) is now the international method of choice for the sustainable management of resources. The aim of the circular economy is to control the extraction of raw materials from the environment in such a way that the sources and sinks are conserved and the growth in consumption and prosperity resulting from population growth can be satisfied in the long term.  

This is to be achieved by using materials efficiently and keeping them in anthropogenic cycles for a long time or feeding them from renewable sources. Circular economy means much more than the term "Kreislaufwirtschaft" commonly used in Germany, which has focused on separating and recycling waste. Circular Economy takes an integrated view of the production, consumption and disposal phases.
 

© Fraunhofer CCPE / Recycling cascade as Fraunhofer CCPE's contribution to advanced recycling

Even though the circular economy is now seen as a panacea against raw material shortages and a driver of jobs and prosperity, the consumption of raw materials and the associated environmental damage are actually increasing. Worldwide, only a small proportion of the total material processed is recycled (approx. 7%, approx. 15% in the EU]). People and markets require a product policy that enables a good standard of living with lower raw material requirements. Products must be designed to be circular from the outset, their use phase must be optimized and high-quality recycling must become a reality (see R-strategies of the circular economy). The consequence of this is that product portfolios and business models must change and be transformed in a circular way - especially in the chemical and other process-oriented industries. These industries are at the beginning of the value chain and have a significant influence on the subsequent circularity potential.

For the chemical industry, the following topics are in the foreground to achieve raw material supply of the future:

• (Plastics) recycling, in particular chemical recycicling,
• Utilization of biomass and
• Creation of carbon cycles

Progress on these issues could reduce the electricity requirement for climate-neutral chemistry by around 120 TWh in 2045.

"Empowering Circularity" is therefore one of six focus topics of the Fraunhofer Alliance Chemistry. It brings together expertise, methods, equipment and infrastructure to accelerate the circular transformation of the economy and society. Two major Fraunhofer initiatives represent this approach.