The Fraunhofer-Institute for Chemical Technology (Fh-ICT) is an institute of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, the largest organisation for applied research in Europe.

The facilities and expertise focus on the conception, computation and development of products and components, on process technology, on research into materials and constituent substances, on characterization, testing and quality assurance.

Available facilities for the project comprise complete equipment and laboratories to obtain biomass extracts, to process and test polymers, plastics and composites.

Project related activities:

Biomass tratment:                                                                                                      Extraction, degradation and use of the components for basic chemicals, materials and fuels      Fibre treatment by the Aquasolv process (super heated water)

Material development:                                                                                                     Screening of biopolymers, additives and modifiers at lab-scale                                               Processing by extrusion to achieve compounds and injection moulding of parts at semi-industrial scale                                                                                                                          Advanced long fiber direct processing technologies like LFT-D (direct processing of long fiber reinforced thermoplastics), Direct   SMC (direct processing of sheet molding compounds) and T-RTM process technology (thermoplastics resins transfer molding)

Control methods:                                                                                                             On/In-line Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) for polymers, fibres and composites and curing kinetics                                                                                                                     Measurements for fire resistance