Main research areas
Defossilization strategies for increased sustainability in the plastics sector are the overarching focus of research work at the IKK. By recycling plastics, petrochemical carbon is used several times and thus replaces primary carbon from crude oil. This means that less “fresh” petrochemical carbon is used at the beginning of the life cycle and at the same time the petro-based carbon becomes a renewable source of raw materials.
The IKK - Institute for Plastics and Circular Economy therefore supports the industry in the development of product-specific recycling strategies, starting with the design, through processing, to the practical implementation and optimization of material developments, recycling processes and sustainability assessment. The entire life cycle of plastic products is considered, i.e. material production and processing, process optimization and the development and practical investigation of sustainable, efficient recycling approaches. To this end, the IKK has a state-of-the-art technical infrastructure for processing and recycling plastics. Extensive destructive and non-destructive material testing and chemical analysis accompany the entire development process. With its plastics expertise, the IKK complements the technical profile of the Hannover Centre for Production Technology (PZH) at the new mechanical engineering campus in Hanover Garbsen very well.
Another approach to defossilizing the plastics industry is the use of biogenic carbon for the production of bio-based and biodegradable plastics. In particular, the persistence and degradation behavior of conventional plastics as well as the degradation mechanisms and decomposition products of bioplastics are therefore the subject of research at the IKK. The basic degradability and degradation behavior of plastics in aquatic and terrestrial environmental compartments can be investigated using various multi-scale experimental concepts. By simulating the environmental conditions of the various environmental compartments, the relationships between material structure, environmental conditions and the resulting degradation mechanisms and degradation products can be investigated.
