Fraunhofer USA

An increasing number of people are riding electric bikes. Compared to cars, electric bikes are cheaper, more environmentally friendly, healthier for every-one and free up space in urban areas. The drawback is that there are often no spare parts for defective components such as motors or batteries, meaning they have to be completely replaced with expensive new components. A team of researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA demonstrated in a study with its partners that electric bike motors can be remanufactured in keeping with the concept of a modern circular economy. The researchers at Fraunhofer IPA will provide an insight into the remanufacturing of electric bike components in the RemanLab, a new learning environment for remanufacturing.

Harmful PFAS chemicals can now be detected in many soils and bodies of water. Removing them using conventional filter techniques is costly and almost infeasible. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB are now successfully implementing a plasma-based technology in the AtWaPlas joint research project. Contaminated water is fed into a combined glass and stainless steel cylinder where it is then treated with ionized gas, i.e. plasma. This reduces the PFAS molecular chains, allowing the toxic substance to be removed at a low cost.

Cocoa plays an important role in Brazilian agriculture. However, the fruit of the cacao tree (cocoa pods) is prone to fungal diseases. In the 1990s, a fungal epidemic caused cocoa production in Brazil to collapse. Nowadays, pest infestations are responsible for crop losses of up to 40 percent worldwide. In collaboration with the State University of Campinas (Unicamp), Brazil, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging IVV are looking to establish new ways of using damaged cocoa pods as part of the Damaged Beans project. Cocoa beans damaged by fungal diseases could represent a valuable raw material, particularly for the manufacture of cosmetic products, and have the potential to replace harmful substances such as acrylates and mineraloil-based raw materials.

Cyberattacks on industry and critical infrastructure are on the rise across the globe. Targets also include ships, which, by transporting billions of tons of goods around the world each year, form part of international supply chains — yet their on-board IT systems often lack secure protection. To raise awareness of the risks of inadequate cybersecurity at sea and to help develop defensive solutions for guarding against cyberattacks, the Maritime Cyber Security research group at the Fraunhofer Institute for Communication, Information Processing and Ergonomics FKIE has teamed up with the Fraunhofer Center for Maritime Logistics and Services CML to set up a modular maritime security lab. This simulates cyberattacks on ships to find ways to detect and defend against attacks.