Zittau Institute for Process Development, Circular Economy, Surface Technology, Natural Materials Research (ZIRKON)

The focus is usually on the basic mechanical operations of shredding, separating, mixing and agglomerating.

• Integrated processing of biomass
• sorting
  • dispersed mixed plastic waste
  • mineral raw materials (e.g. processing of raw gravel as a starting material for the glass industry, classifying, opto-electronic picking)
  • packaging waste
  • Dispersed mixtures according to electrical conductivity, material density, dielectric properties, etc.
• Shredding of almost any material
• Integration of innovative microwave technology for drying, sorting and synthesis tasks
• Detection of individual particle characteristics (e.g. infrared detection) within material streams
• Plastics analysis (DSC, TGA, tension-compression testing)

• Surface pretreatments 
• Surface activations and coatings using low pressure and atmospheric pressure plasma technology
• Determination of coating and surface properties
• Fracture-resistant and strength-optimized component design
• Bonding technology

• Multi-criteria sustainability assessment of regional circular economy and bioeconomy strategies
• Further development of waste treatment plants into cycle-oriented biorefineries
• Conception and evaluation of innovative biomass utilization strategies and cascade utilization strategies (e.g. in the areas of biochar and whole plant utilization)
• Co-creative development, support and evaluation of operational decarbonization technologies and pathways and municipal climate protection strategies as well as technology coupling options between the public sector and companies
• Evaluation of cross-company by-product utilization options in the field of bioeconomy and bioenergy(Industrial Symbiosis)

Investigations are carried out on:

• Survey of pedological and soil mechanical parameters
• Water storage capacities
• water balance layers
• Quantification of the evapotranspiration capacity
• Establishment of plant stands to support slope safety
• Rooting of soils
• Use of technical soil substrates
• Microplastics in the soil
• Phosphate elimination
• Peat and humic substances