Due to increasingly complex materials and material flows, companies and waste dis-posal companies are facing ever new challenges in disposing of these materials in an environmentally friendly manner and returning them to a circular economy. In order to shed more light on this issue, the Fraunhofer Project Group IWKS and the WFZruhr hosted the workshop "New concepts and technologies for the circular economy" in Alzenau on July 11, 2018.

The group was welcomed by Prof. Dr. Rudolf Stauber, Managing Director of the Fraunhofer Project Group IWKS. Dr. Carsten Gellermann, Head of the Division Secondary Raw Materials, then gave an overview of the project group and its research areas. In the following presentation by Dr. Katrin Bokelmann, Head of the Department Separa-tion and Sorting Technologies, the participants gained an insight into new concepts and technologies that use innovative approaches to effectively recycle valuable materi-als. Dr. Bokelmann also dealt with technologies such as electrohydraulic fragmentation and the modular sorting plant which are used for the research of the scientists.

A special highlight was the tour through the technical center and the laboratories: Here, the guests could experience the sorting plant in action and obtain more detailed information about the technologies such as the scanning electron microscope.

In the afternoon, the topic of battery recycling was discussed by Johannes Öhl, re-searcher in the Department Energy Materials and Lightweight Technology. His presen-tation focused on technologies for the recovery of valuable materials from used lithium-ion batteries. Afterwards, the participants had ample opportunity to exchange ideas and discuss with each other and the scientists of the project group.

The active exchange with industry representatives is an important aspect of the applied research of the Fraunhofer Project Group IWKS. Not only did the participants benefit from new impulses and suggestions for their own company, their feedback on current challenges and questions in their companies is also essential in order to be able to con-tinuously develop new solutions and technologies. The Fraunhofer IWKS project group regularly offers workshops on various topics.