Compliance with Sustainability and Circularity

Meeting regulatory requirements and sustainability targets is increasingly complex and demands reliable, comprehensive data from multiple perspectives. Companies need accurate tracking and reporting systems that ensure compliance with evolving laws and standards.

At the same time, achieving sustainability goals requires clear insights into material properties, recyclability, and the potential for recovery. Designing products for reuse, repurposing, or recycling involves understanding environmental footprints throughout the lifecycle: an inherently complex task.

Comprehensive data management and integration systems provide the foundation to analyze these factors effectively, helping companies align operational practices with both sustainability objectives and regulatory compliance.

Why it matters

Modern industries depend on critical materials such as nickel, magnesium, and rare earth elements to manufacture a diverse range of products. These materials often face supply chain vulnerabilities, exacerbated by global crises such as pandemics, geopolitical tensions, or suspended trade agreements. The result is frequent supply bottlenecks, which disrupt production and threaten industrial sustainability.

Additionally, the reliance on primary sources for these materials contributes to significant environmental and resource challenges. The slow adoption of recycling methods and the inability to efficiently reuse secondary materials compound these issues. A lack of standardized methods to evaluate the functional reliability of recycled materials further hinders the transition to sustainable practices.

Industries need a paradigm shift, from relying on composition-based material specifications to function-based specifications, to address these vulnerabilities effectively. By doing so, they can enable the substitution of critical materials, integrate recycled materials seamlessly, and foster a more sustainable and resilient supply chain.

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Project Example: ORCHESTER

The Fraunhofer flagship project ORCHESTER was initiated to address these pressing challenges by developing a digital ecosystem to ensure a sustainable and resilient supply of functionally reliable materials. Launched in January 2024 and involving six Fraunhofer Institutes, ORCHESTER takes an interdisciplinary approach to create innovative solutions for managing critical materials.

The project aims to broaden the spectrum of usable materials, increase the share of recycled content in production processes, and reduce dependence on rare earth elements from primary sources. Central to ORCHESTER is the shift from traditional material specifications based on composition to specifications based on functional properties, enabling quicker substitution of critical materials and fostering resilience in material supply.
 

Key Demonstrators

• Nickel Reduction in Bipolar Plates. ORCHESTER explores methods to reduce the nickel content in bipolar plates used in electrolyzers, fuel cells, and heat exchangers: components whose costs are heavily influenced by nickel, a high-risk critical element. By maintaining the essential functional properties of these plates, the project minimizes reliance on nickel without compromising performance.
• Enhancing Recycled Content in Aluminum Alloys. The project targets compressor wheels for hydrogen pipelines, fuel cells, and heat pumps, aiming to maximize the use of secondary aluminum alloys. High-throughput experimental and simulation methods identify effective alloy variations to reduce the energy footprint while ensuring material integrity.
• Recycling Permanent Magnets. A key focus is the reuse of permanent magnets from electric motors and wind turbines. ORCHESTER employs advanced simulation models and machine learning techniques to predict the impact of impurities on magnetic performance and to determine optimal alloying compositions.

Team Materials Informatics at Fraunhofer IWM leads the development of ORCHESTER's digital ecosystem, which integrates and connects data across the value chain. This platform provides tools for exploring and expanding material data, enables proactive decision-making through early warnings on material flows and criticality, and offers data-driven recommendations using AI-based insights.

The institute plays a crucial role in all three demonstrators, with a particular focus on increasing the recycled content in aluminum alloys by addressing impurity management. Fraunhofer IWM also contributes to modeling and simulation efforts for material selection and specification, as well as criticality assessments for permanent magnets. Both physical models and AI methods are utilized to enhance the reliability of material properties and processes.

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Related services

• Dataspaces
• Ecosystems
• Ontologies

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