News
Alkanes, laser flashes and BESSY's X-ray vision
An international research team has succeeded in observing an intermediate step in the catalysis of alkanes:
An international research team has succeeded in observing an intermediate step in the catalysis of alkanes. By understanding these reactions, existing catalysts can be optimized in the future and new ones found, for…
The defiant
At the Adlershof-based Reiner Lemoine Institute (RLI), Christine Kühnel is working towards a future in which energy is 100 percent renewable:
The German government just recently cut funding for the Climate and Transformation Fund. This affects Reiner Lemoine Institut (RLI), among many others. “The consequences are dramatic,” says Christine Kühnel, who has…
RLI designs a digital twin for the local heating market in Berlin
On behalf of the Berlin Senate Department for Mobility, Transport, Climate Protection and the Environment, scientists design a digital heat register:
Berlin is ready to tackle the challenges of climate change and take on a pioneering role in the use of renewable energies. A powerful team of energy market, heat market and digital experts will provide support. On…
HU research team achieves exciting breakthrough in battery technology
Innovative sulfur-based cathode enables the use of more environmentally friendly and sustainable materials in lithium-ion batteries:
A research team at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin has achieved a major breakthrough in battery technology. Under the leadership of IRIS Adlershof member Prof. Dr Michael J. Bojdys, an innovative sulfur-based cathode…
German-South African GreenQUEST initiative is developing a clean household fuel
CO₂-neutral liquid gas with a great economic, environmental and social impact for southern Africa:
Burning biomass for cooking causes harmful environmental and health issues. The German-South African GreenQUEST initiative is developing a clean household fuel. It aims to reduce climate-damaging CO2 emissions and to…
How pulsed charging enhances the service time of batteries
Research team led by Prof. Adelhelm (HZB and Humboldt University) analyses ageing effects of lithium-ion batteries with different charging protocols:
An improved charging protocol might help lithium-ion batteries to last much longer. Charging with a high-frequency pulsed current reduces ageing effects, an international team demonstrated. The study was led by…
Pioneering work for more efficient food production
The startup Mimotype and the Hybrid Devices Group at HU Berlin are developing protein thin films for the spectral reshuffling of sunlight to increase crop yields:
The challenges are clear: global food demand will increase 56% by 2050; extreme weather events are increasing food supply insecurity. Solutions are tangible: food production gains attributable to greenhouse…
New pioneering Leibniz Lab to combat pandemics
FBH contributes its expertise in the development of innovative UV light-emitting diodes and related irradiation systems:
The newly launched Leibniz Lab "Pandemic Preparedness: One Health, One Future" combines excellent interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research from 41 Leibniz Institutes. For the first time in Germany,…
Where quantum computers can score
A Berlin research team has shown that a certain class of optimisation problems can actually be solved better with quantum computers than with conventional methods:
The travelling salesman problem is considered a prime example of a combinatorial optimisation problem. Now a Berlin team led by theoretical physicist Prof. Dr. Jens Eisert of Freie Universität Berlin and HZB has shown…
Stronger than Nature: Optimised Radicals as Potential Novel Catalysts
Research team redesigns phenoxyl radicals with improved oxidation capacity in the lab:
Nature uses enzymes for various metabolic processes. These biological catalysts are extremely efficient. Biomimetic catalysts based on inexpensive starting materials from the laboratory that can reproduce the…
New approach to detect ‘forever chemicals’ in water
A team of researchers from BAM and the University of Birmingham has developed a sensor to detect PFAS in water quickly and easily:
Scientists at the University of Birmingham in collaboration with scientists from the Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM) have developed a new approach for detecting pollution from ‘forever…
HZB makes progress towards greenhouse gas neutrality by 2035
Carina Hanke, climate and energy manager at HZB, tells about the project’s challenges and results:
The Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) has committed to achieving greenhouse gas neutrality by 2035. To find its main emission sources, it determined its greenhouse gas footprint and had it verified by an external…
Grid-friendly use of heat pumps leads to a reduction in grid expansion costs
RLI analyses the effects of increased flexibility of heat pumps through higher output and heat storage capacity:
Delayed expansion of the electricity grids jeopardizes the rapid implementation of the energy system transformation. More flexibility through heat pumps and heat storage in the electricity grid could counteract this…
H2-ready power plants prepared for operation with hydrogen?
RLI study shows challenges and solutions for the conversion of gas-fired power plants:
Hydrogen (H2) plays an important role in the renewable energy system to secure electricity generation. New and existing power plants must therefore be made ready for H2 operation. They should become H2-ready. However,…
Boosting PET recycling with higher standards for laboratory experiments
Researchers evaluated enzymes that break down plastic so that they can be put into industrial use more quickly:
Many enzymes promise to break down plastic. But what works well in the lab often fails on a large scale. Now a new study by Gert Weber, HZB, Uwe Bornscheuer, University of Greifswald, and Alain Marty, Chief Scientific…
HZB aims to become greenhouse gas neutral by 2035
The research institute presents verified greenhouse gas balance as a basis for savings measures:
HZB is aware of its social responsibility. Now, HZB’s Greenhouse Gas Report is here, after being externally verified, and identifies the main sources of emissions. The report provides the basis for significantly…
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Materially enabling the circular economy
At TechConnect Adlershof, scientific institutions, innovators, and companies discussed how new materials enable a circular economy:
When someone like Patrick Teuffel matter-of-factly uses the words “ongoing progress” to describe the workings of his industry - instead of the ubiquitous “ongoing process” – it says very clearly something about how…
Grid-friendly charging: How e-cars help with the energy transition
With the open source software SpiceEV, the Reiner Lemoine Institute has found a way for electric cars to support the power grid as rolling storage units:
Electric vehicles not only draw electricity from the grid, they can also help make more electricity from renewable energies usable. They serve as rolling storage units and offer high potential for load-side…
Green hydrogen could reach economic viability by co-production of valuable chemicals
Study by HZB and TU Berlin reveals a promising approach to lowering the cost of solar hydrogen production:
It already works: there are several approaches to using solar energy to split water and produce hydrogen. Unfortunately, this green hydrogen has so far been more expensive than grey hydrogen from natural gas. A study…
Renewables in its DNA
ABO Wind is a wind farm project development company that is working on the energy transition:
The energy transition is built on sun and wind. But the path to putting facilities on fields and meadows is long. The project development company ABO Wind knows the way around but is also aware of the pitfalls. The…