Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems IMWS
Partners from the region of Central Germany are working on the RUBIO2value project to create an industrial, circular bioeconomy that will accelerate structural change and generate new value chains. The project utilizes bio-based plastics obtained from regional waste materials which are to be used in textiles, reusable packaging, and geotextiles. The Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems IMWS in Halle (Saale) is coordinating the project, which also focuses on holistic sustainability assessments and process scaling.
Bioplastics from renewable sources make it possible to dispense with fossil resources and thus reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Their effect on the climate and environment is particularly effective when regionally available raw materials are used, integrated into a circular economy.
In the RUBIO project, several partners from Central Germany have shown that the region has all the prerequisites for establishing an industrial value-added network for bioplastics. Polybutylene Succinate (PBS), a material that can be obtained from biowaste, agricultural by-products, or green waste, has proven to be a particularly promising raw material. The follow-up project RUBIO2value aims to exploit these results economically.
The consortium covers the entire value chain for bio-based PBS plastics from raw material to finished product in Central Germany and aims for the scale-up. The goal is to implement example applications on an industrial pilot scale. These include textiles, injection-molded reusable packaging, and geotextiles, which are used, for example, in the construction industry for drainage under roads, slope stabilization, or as protective layers in landfills, as well as in agriculture (erosion control). To this end, significant progress is being sought both in understanding the materials used and in terms of the processing methods.
The resulting demonstrators will be subjected to an environmental, cost, and social life cycle assessment (HILCSA). This holistic view supports a robust basis for decision-making for design-for-recycling and circular strategies right from the selection of raw materials, processes, and products, which is becoming increasingly important for companies against the backdrop of current EU directives on packaging and waste. In addition, a risk assessment will be carried out with regard to regionally/globally available raw materials for PBS in order to enable transparent, traceable decisions for a stable regional supply chain.
"RUBIO2value makes it possible to utilize bioplastics from regional waste materials on a large scale in an economically viable manner and to integrate them directly into industrial value chains," says Dr. Patrick Hirsch, who heads the project at Fraunhofer IMWS. The combination of expertise in materials research, process technology, life cycle assessment, and market transformation, as well as the focus on a complete regional PBS value chain, are unique with this project.
In addition to coordinating the joint project, Fraunhofer IMWS focuses primarily on activities in materials development and process control: The focus here is on the development of PBS materials, the analysis of their properties, and the resulting optimization of processing methods for robust industrial application. The experts in Halle (Saale) also combine holistic life cycle analysis (LCA), life cycle cost analysis (LCC), and social LCA (sLCA) to link environmental aspects with economic viability and social impacts, which forms an important basis for cradle-to-cradle options for textile and packaging applications.
"At Fraunhofer IMWS, we combine material development, processing, and sustainability into a holistic scale-up strategy – from the laboratory to industrial production – thus laying the foundation for a competitive bioeconomy in Central Germany," says Hirsch.
The consortium brings together Fraunhofer IMWS, Exipnos, STFI, Technitex, SAXA, Global Solutions, POLYKUM, and associated partners. The solutions are to be further developed from Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6 to TRL 8. In order to support rapid market adaptation in the areas of recycling, textile manufacturing, geotextiles, and packaging, practical solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises, such as drop-in applications, are being addressed in particular. In the long term, locations in Central Germany are to be identified for industrial PBS production and the cascaded use of material and energy flows prepared, which can also contribute to creating new product and application fields for bioplastics. This will give the region a sustainable, self-sufficient plastics industry with less dependence on global raw material markets.
(February 6, 2026)