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.

Climate adaptation and biodiversity protection need to be more closely interconnected and developed through integrated approaches. For planning processes, this means combining climatic and ecological information, databases, climate adaptation and biodiversity strategies, as well as interdisciplinary expertise - a major challenge, particularly as no digitally supported methodology for the integrated planning of climate adaptation and biodiversity protection currently exists. As a result, planning processes are often complex and time-consuming, while potential synergies remain difficult to identify. The BioAdapt project addresses this challenge by developing a user-friendly planning tool that integrates data and methodologies for the evidence-based design and evaluation of climate adaptation and biodiversity protection measures, including the necessary databases.

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.

Since 2013, the new urban district Neckarpark has been developed on the site of the former freight yard brownfield in Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt. Municipal wastewater serves as the primary energy source for the district heat supply. Its thermal energy is harnessed via a heat pump system and distributed through a low-temperature district heating network. To increase the efficiency of the district heating network, developers were required from the outset to significantly exceed the statutory energy performance requirements for new buildings (minimum standard: KfW Efficiency House 55). At the launch of the project and for several years thereafter, the Neckarpark project - with a thermal extraction capacity of 2,100 kW from wastewater - was by far the largest wastewater heat recovery project in Germany. As such, Neckarpark serves as a nationwide benchmark for sustainable energy supply in urban districts.

The SafeCar project aimed to reduce the risk of infection for paramedics and patients in ambulances by finding ways of eliminating viruses in a swift and efficient manner.

In the “Fraunhofer vs. Corona” program, Fraunhofer IBP has established practical methods to demonstrate the efficiency of air purification technologies.

Mobile indoor air purifiers remove infectious aerosols from the air or deactivate the pathogens contained within.

Scientists at the Fraunhofer IBP are developing an online process analysis to detect and verify organosulfur compounds.

New regulations such as the Energy Saving Ordinance raise the question of how efficiently ventilation systems work in terms of energy consumption.

The Fraunhofer IBP helped PHIUS develop a climate-adapted passive house standard and implemented it in the building simulation software WUFI® Passive.

The aim of the "EeBGuide" is for Europe to apply uniform and binding rules that put working with LCA on a common basis.

Our projects entitled “Clean Air Acoustics”, “AC/DC”, and “Healthy Air Initiative” focus on finding ways to purify air in rooms while keeping noise levels low.

At a school in Kochi, local regional partners and researchers from various Fraunhofer Institutes are testing technologies for adapting to the changing climate.

The project aims at strengthening Kochi's resilience to the effects of climate change.

In pursuit of safeguarding the values of the UNESCO World Heritage site of Petra (Jordan) given the challenges of rapid societal and climatic change, the Academy of Conservation and Care for the Environment 2024 (ACCE) aims to foster national and international knowledge exchange among post graduate students and young professionals. ACCE is building a platform for emerging young professionals to come together and participate in workshops at the intersection of natural and cultural heritage environments, by learning from and working with the communities entrusted with their care.

Climate change has significant impacts on our lives. Over the next few decades, extreme weather events such as heat waves, heavy rain, and flooding will continue to increase. In addition, gradual changes such as the shifting of precipitation patterns and rising annual average temperatures with more extreme heat days in the future are expected. As part of the pilot project “Climate Adaptation in Cultural Institutions”, 20 cultural institutions, including museums, libraries, theaters, socio-cultural institutions and park facilities, are being examined with regard to their vulnerability to location-specific climate-related changes, and climate adaptation measures are being developed. Based on these assessments, tailored adaption measures will be developed, considering structural, organizational, and programmatic potentials. The project focuses not only on protecting people, but also on safeguarding the buildings themselves and their often historically valuable interiors.

Every year, numerous art objects and monuments are enclosed to protect them against the weather, typically using wooden structures. However, the resulting humid indoor climate of these enclosures promotes microbial growth and increases freeze-thaw damage, often leading to expensive restorations. The project partners have therefore developed a modular enclosure system for outdoor cultural assets exposed to the elements, using transparent membranes and an innovative ventilation system. This ensures effective moisture removal under all weather conditions and eliminates moisture as the main cause of damage. Through a self-regulating ventilation system, the enclosure maintains a drier interior climate, allowing the enclosed artifacts to dry quickly and remain dry. This prevents freeze-thaw cycles from causing damage. The modular design facilitates assembly, disassembly, and storage, so that art objects both remain visible and are better protected.

Development and utilization of an innovative organic-based building material made of cattail and geopolymer.

To achieve a biological transformation, material flows must be considered as a whole and biointelligent solutions found for them. Closed material cycles are essential. For the insulating material, biological raw materials as well as residual materials are bonded together by mycelial growth.

How can the installation process of heat pumps be made more efficient and productive to address the challenges posed by the shortage of specialists and time-intensive installation? The WESPE research project investigates and develops innovative, standardized, and digitalized processes aimed at reducing the installation time of heat pumps by up to 40%.