Projects and References

As part of the funding initiative “Resource-Efficient Circular Economy – Urban Mining” launched by the German Federal Ministry for Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR), the research project “RueBe” was initiated in November 2025. The project aims to recover and reintegrate mineral waste from DK0 landfills into sustainable building material cycles. It is coordinated by the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics IBP.

The goal of the joint project “RESycling” is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the steel, cement and fertilizer industries, as well as to recover valuable raw materials.

The Inorganic Materials and Recycling department has succeeded in recovering single-variety secondary raw materials from masonry demolition waste.

The construction industry is facing a major challenge: each year, around 90 percent of all domestic mineral raw materials used in Germany are consumed by construction projects. At the same time, many valuable construction wastes - particularly from older buildings - are landfilled or insufficiently recycled. Structures built between the 1960s and 1980s are especially affected, as they often contain fibrous silicate minerals. These legacy contaminations frequently result in otherwise recyclable concrete having to be disposed of as hazardous waste. The ReAsCon project therefore pursues an innovative approach for processing and recovering such unwanted legacy materials in the construction sector.

The separation of ashes and slags is intended to provide raw materials for the production of resource-efficient building products.

In line with Germany's sustainability strategy and in support of the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics IBP has launched the joint project “AACtion,” dedicated to the development of environmentally friendly building materials. Facing the challenges of increasing global urbanization pressures, the project aims to significantly enhance resource efficiency and reduce the carbon footprint in the construction industry.

The project aims to explore ways to recycle processed ash from waste incineration plants as a raw material for concrete.

Development of a rear-ventilated façade with integrated heat exchanger to recover energy to heat buildings.

In the project “Acoustically optimized design of fan attachments and casings (ADVentAGe)”, hybrid active noise control systems are being developed and validated in collaboration with project partners. These can be integrated into fan casings or typical fan attachments such as inlet cones, protective grilles and diffusers to significantly reduce acoustic emissions from fans.

BES Model Validation: Measurement Datasets from Twin House Experiments of IEA EBC Annexes 58 and 71 for the Validation of Dynamic Building Simulation.