Trainers

Sustainable remake

The rice husks replace a part of the rubber used for the outsoles, thereby decreasing the quantity of petroleum-based rubber in the shoe. Compared to conventional products, the `Re-Suede´ reduces CO2 emissions by 80%. This is because not just the outsole is made from waste materials. The synthetic Ultrasuede upper material is also comprised of recycled polyester fibres. The remake of Puma’s classic trainer ‘Suede’ was designed as an eco-product based mainly on recycling.

Coffee cup

From old to new

Transforming old coffee into new products - that is the idea behind the products of the Berlin start-up Kafform. On offer: coffee cups and saucers, that consist of 40% recycled coffee grounds. Each cup is made of 60 grams of coffee grounds, which is equivalent to eight cups of coffee. Other ingredients are plant fibers and a resin made of biopolymers.

TU Munich with new bioeconomy campus

The Campus Straubing for Biotechnology and Sustainability will become a new Integrative Research Centre at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). The specific focus in research and teaching that has been envisioned will make this new centre unique: It will concentrate on renewable resources, biotechnology, and bioeconomy. For this, new interdisciplinary degree programs will be established, which will only be offered by TUM in Straubing and nowhere else in the country.

Smart molecular building blocks

Our bodies, windows or plastic bottles – all of them are made up of different molecules. The big difference however: while the molecules in the human body or other living organisms are in constant exchange with their surroundings, artificially produced material is not. This in turn directly affects their ability to break down after being used.

Microorganisms transform exhaust fumes into bioplastic

Art history or biology? During his school days, Johannes Gescher couöd have chosen either one. Eventually though, the biology studies won out, and the young student moved from his birthplace of Fulda to the university town Freiburg. Once there he was captivated by the world of microorganisms almost immediately: “Even during my undergraduate degree, I saw that my future was in microbiology,” Gescher says today.

3D structure of a fertilizer producing enzyme

The vanadium-dependent nitrogenase is an enzyme that catalyses two important processes: On the one hand it converts atmospheric nitrogen (N2) to ammonia, on the other hand it reduces carbon monoxide (CO) to hydrocarbons. Today, both reactions are run on a big scale by chemical catalyses to produce ammonia and fuels for industry. In additon, ammonia is used as synthetic fertilizer to ensure the food production for at least half of the world’s population.

Watching the inner workings of plants

Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is the ubiquitous energy currency of all living organisms. Without it there would be no metabolic processes or growth possible – for animal cells as well as plant cells. Headed by the University Bonn an international team of researchers was able to visualise the ATP distribution and utilisation during stressful phases in living plant seedlings.

Evonik on the path to digitalisation

In 1997 the IBM-computer “Deep Blue” defeated former world chess champion Garry Kasparov. In 2011 the IBM-computer software “Watson” beat its human counterpart during a US- game show. By now the former pioneer of artificial intelligence broadened his abilities even further and is being used by companies worldwide. Especially the healthcare sector and the insurance industry appreciate the unprecedented potential of “Watson” to collect, analyse, and interpret mostly unstructured information and be able to make predictions based on them.

Dowel

Castor for firm hold

Normally, dowels are made from highly robust and resistant plastics such as nylon. The Baden-Württemberg-based construction company Fischer relies on a polymer that is partly based on castor oil as a raw material. The oil is extracted from the seeds of the castor oil plant Ricinus communis, which belongs to the spurge plant genus.