German Federal Ministry of Education and Research funds TUM's Green Carbon Project

German Federal Ministry of Education and Research has funded TUM's Green Carbon Project.

In combination with native granite or other types of hard rock, carbon fibres can make all-new construction and building materials.

According to the university theoretical calculations show if the carbon fibres are produced from algae oil, production of the innovative materials extracts more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it sets free.

A research project spearheaded by the Technical University of Munich (TUM) is to further advance these technologies.

The objective of the project, “Green Carbon”, is to develop manufacturing processes for polymers and carbon-based light-weight construction materials based on algae which may be utilised in the aviation and automotive industry.

The development of the various processes is accompanied by technological, economical and sustainability analyses.

The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, BMBF) has dedicated funds amounting to around 6.5 million Euro to fund the research at TU Munich.

In the further course of the project, the plastics will be combined with the carbon fibres to produce corresponding composite materials. “The carbon fibres produced from algae are absolutely identical to the fibres currently in use in the industry. Therefore, they can be used for all standard processes in aviation and automotive production,” said project lead Thomas Brück, professor for synthetic biotechnology at TU Munich.