November 2, 2022

Data instead of coal - Lusatia in transition

Where open-cast mining once shaped the landscape, data will soon be collected from space, fuel-efficient aircraft will be invented and the hydrogen age will be ushered in. In Lusatia, cutting-edge research of international standing is about to get underway. By Matthias Salm.

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Lusatia as a gateway to space: At the end of September, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research announced the winners in the competition for two new large-scale research centers in the former East German lignite mining regions. While the "Center for the Transformation of Chemistry" (CTC) will be located in Saxony-Anhalt as an important chemical site, the German Center for Astrophysics (DZA) will be established in Lusatia in Saxony, rather surprisingly for many. The DZA originated as a joint initiative of astronomy and astroparticle physics in Germany. Out of more than 100 sketches of ideas, six projects had made it onto the shortlist of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research last year. The experts now believe that the CTC and the DZA are most likely to change the face of Lusatia profoundly.

As the driving force behind the application and designated founding director of the DZA, the scientific director of the European Space Agency ESA, Prof. Dr. Günther Hasinger, is a star of the astrophysics scene: "This competition opened up new perspectives, for the regions in Saxony and for our society," says Hasinger. The makers of the DZA explicitly emphasize that astrophysics is not a remote science: "Astrophysics was and is a high-tech science with great innovative power. Varifocal glasses, ceramic fields, essential components of cell phones, navigation systems or fast electronic bank transfers via satellite - all this exists thanks to astronomical research." The DZA initiators emphasize the practical value of astrophysics not without reason. After all, some people in Lusatia would have preferred to see a different decision with a stronger connection to the region's economic traditions.

More data than on the Internet

In the first step, top astronomical research at the DZA will cover the entire electromagnetic spectrum up to gravitational waves. In the second step, data streams from all over the world will be processed at the DZA, and data from future large telescopes are also planned, such as those of the Square Kilometre Array or the Einstein telescope, a major European project. The latter, the vision goes, could detect gravitational waves that would create a new picture of the universe. To illustrate the dimension: The data from these telescopes accounts for several times the traffic on today's Internet. Collecting and processing it requires entirely new technologies.

The third step will be a technology center where new semiconductor sensors, silicon optics and control techniques for observatories will be developed. And this is where the direct benefits will come, the astrophysicists promise: Above all, the researchers see enormous economic potential in the field of optical technologies and semiconductor technology, and the opportunity to position themselves in microelectronics more independently of other markets - a burning issue of the day. Companies for novel semiconductor sensor technology, control engineering, mechanics or optics are to be established around the center. The DZA will be located on a campus for cutting-edge research on the Kahlbaum site in Görlitz.

But before the data is collected from space, it may first go deep. The DZA wants to use the seismographic conditions in the granite rock of Lusatia for its research and development of new equipment. A research laboratory, the Low Seismic Lab, is to be built in an underground tunnel system between Hoyerswerda, Bautzen and Kamenz. The funding provides for a three-year construction phase. The TU Dresden will be the project sponsor and contribute its expertise in data analytics, artificial intelligence and high-performance computing.

High-tech and Hollywood

Until now, the international fame of Germany's easternmost city has stemmed more from its historic facades serving as a backdrop for films from the Hollywood dream factory. Now Görlitz could catapult itself into the league of national and international locations for cutting-edge research. After all, astrophysicists are by no means the only scientists drawn to the Neisse. Researchers from the Fraunhofer Institutes for Machine Tools and Forming Technology IWU and Wind Energy Systems IWES also want to pitch their tents there and enable innovative solutions for large-scale industrial hydrogen technologies along the entire H2 value chain at the Hydrogen Lab Görlitz (HLG): green H2 production by means of electrolysis, H2 storage in tubular storage tanks and H2 utilization in gas turbines primarily for the areas of industry, neighborhoods and mobility. For Saxony's Minister of Economic Affairs, Martin Dulig, this is a continuation of the region's energy history: "Our goal is for Lusatia to remain the energy region in the state even after structural change. The Hydrogen Lab Görlitz makes a decisive contribution to this."

Görlitz will become the site of the Center for Astrophysics. Photo: Nikolai Schmidt.jpg

Prof. Welf-Guntram Drossel, managing director of the Fraunhofer IWU, also sees the economic aspect in the foreground. "There is a lot of potential for new value creation and high-quality jobs in the production of innovative hydrogen system components. Lusatian companies in particular can be at the forefront of a technology shift toward climate protection and sustainable competitiveness."

However, it's not there yet. "We too are affected by disrupted supply chains and price increases, which in turn necessitate rescheduling, often resulting in further delays. For this reason, we now expect to be able to put the Hydrogen Lab Görlitz (HLG) into operation at the end of 2023," says institute spokesman Andreas Hemmerle in response to a W+M query.

Heat transition in industry

100 kilometers to the north, in Cottbus, Brandenburg, they are already further along. "An incredible amount is happening in the region right now," Prof. Dr. Uwe Riedel is pleased to say. Riedel heads the Institute of Low-Carbon Industrial Processes of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Cottbus and Zittau, which was founded in 2019. The institute's research focuses on decarbonizing large energy-intensive industrial sectors. A more suitable location than Brandenburg could hardly have been chosen for this. Whether it's the chemical industry in Schwarzheide, paper production and petrochemicals in Schwedt, cement production in Rüdersdorf or steel production in Eisenhüttenstadt - Brandenburg's key industries are all energy guzzlers and COemitters on a large scale.

The Cobra pilot plant in the test hall in Cottbus.

One of the Cottbus researchers' main areas of research is high-temperature heat pumps based on renewable resources for industrial processes. They are intended to make the use of fossil fuels in industry unnecessary. "For many industrial needs, temperatures of 150-300 degrees Celsius are sufficient," explains institute director Riedel. DLR researchers have already put a test plant, the CoBra high-temperature heat pump, into operation. "We can achieve values that are unique in the world so far for the temperature stroke and the heat release temperature of 300 degrees Celsius." In the long term, temperatures of up to 500 degrees Celsius should also be possible. DLR handled the construction of the plant primarily with companies from the region.

In addition to Cottbus, the DLR institute has a second site in Zittau. While research in Cottbus uses air or inert gases as working media, the pilot plant in Zittau works with water. In addition, "digital twins" of real production plants are being created in Cottbus to simulate the use of renewable energies in production processes in the steel industry, for example. However, Riedel, the institute's director, is dampening exaggerated expectations by saying that development will take time. In three to five years, a demonstrator plant could be used in industry.

But Prof. Dr. Uwe Riedel is convinced that the new research facilities in Lusatia are already attracting people: "Around 30 percent of our institute employees have moved here from outside."

In addition to the Institute for Low CO2 Industrial Processes, DLR has also established the Institute for Electrified Aerospace Propulsion Systems in the university city in 2021. Here, lower-emission and more electrified aviation engines for civil transport aircraft are being developed, together with BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg, but also with engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce. At the BTU, the center for research into hybrid-electric and electric systems for the mobility sector is the first point of contact. The Center for Hybrid Electric Systems Cottbus (CHESCO) is looking for alternative drive systems, initially in aviation, but later also in the automotive, rail and shipping sectors.

In general, the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg acts as a linchpin in structural change, for example in its collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute for Energy Infrastructures and Geothermal Energy IEG. For example, Cottbus native and Lusatia returnee Prof. Dr. Mario Ragwitz is investigating holistically integrated energy infrastructures of the electricity, heat and gas sectors and energy-related IT infrastructures in a joint professorship of Fraunhofer IEG and BTU. Ragwitz is also spokesperson for the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft's hydrogen network.  Since its founding in 2020, Fraunhofer IEG has been supporting energy suppliers, grid operators, industrial companies, housing associations and municipalities in the transformation of energy infrastructures with market and application-oriented research.

A science park for Cottbus

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However, one major and defining project in the structural transformation of the Lusatia coal region in the coming years is still on paper - the Lusatia Science Park. Here, the BTU, DLR, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Leibniz Association and companies such as BASF, LEAG and Rolls Royce have jointly committed to creating a technology and innovation park with the themes of "energy transition and decarbonization," "health and life sciences," "global change and transformation processes" and "artificial intelligence and sensor technology" on the edge of the BTU campus. 10,000 jobs and space for 200 small and medium-sized companies based on the model of the Adlershof Science and Technology Park in Berlin, that is the vision. "On the part of the city, the planning fundamentals for the development must be advanced further. These processes will take several more years, probably until around 2026," estimates Jan Gloßmann, the city's press spokesman. Only then will it become clear whether and how cutting-edge research will shape the new face of Lusatia.

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