Date: Thursday, 4^th June 2025
Time: 15:30 – 18:30
Location:  LG 1A Hörsaal 1

The Chair of Decarbonization and Transformation of Industry (DTI) at Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU) is pleased to host Maike Horlacher (Senior Manager Sustainability Consulting) and Fabian Loske (Senior Manager for Business Development – Sustainability Consulting Group) from Sphera – a leader in the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) space and licensor of the GaBi Software for life cycle assessments.

Ms. Horlacher has a B.Sc. in Environmental Engineering from the BTU Cottbus and a M.Sc. in Environmental Engineering with a focus on Sustainable Engineering and Environmental Analytics from the TU Berlin. With more than 10 years of experience in life cycle assessments (LCA), she has managed numerous LCA and sustainability projects for industry clients and the public sector, and has extensive experience in chemical recycling, water foot printing and Life Cycle Data Automation.

Mr. Loske holds a degree in Environmental Engineering from the University of Stuttgart, with studies in the University of Adelaide/South Australia. After starting his career at the Fraunhofer Department Life Cycle Engineering in Stuttgart, he joined Sphera about 9+ years ago. After delivering projects as Senior Consultant, he is now appointed Manager for Business Development in Sphera’s Sustainability Consulting Group, focusing on renewables, consumer goods, polymers and chemicals.

In their guest lecture, they will provide insights into how data and tools could be leveraged to identify and improve environmental impacts in the chemical industry. Besides providing an introduction to sustainability assessments – in particularly LCA – they will also share important methodological considerations in the application of LCA to chemical recycling. Last but not least, they will illustrate the practical applications of LCA with industry case studies.

The guest lecture by Sphera colleagues is offered as a session in the module 14132 “Multidimensional Approaches for Technology Assessment” which is offered by DTI in the summer semester. As Ms. Horlacher and Mr. Loske will be sharing insights relating to ecological aspects related to the decarbonization and sustainability transformation of carbon intensive industries, their lecture is of potential interest for other BTU students and staff who are active in this area. As such, this session with Sphera will be open to all interested participants from BTU.

On Friday 23^rd May 2025, the Chair of Decarbonization and Transformation of Industry (DTI) offers a technical tour in collaboration with CEMEX to its production site in Ruedersdorf to enable students to gain first hand insights into the opportunities and challenges which the cement industry – as an energy intensive industry – is facing in its transformation towards sustainability. During the one day excursion, BTU students will have the opportunity to take photo and video materials of the production activities of CEMEX as input for their group project to develop a short science communication video, as well as a group presentation on topics related to the decarbonization and transformation of Germany’s cement industry. Besides a technical tour of CEMEX’s facilities and operations, they will also be able to engage experts onsite in dialogue to find out more about the transformation towards sustainable cement production. This technical tour to CEMEX is offered as part of the module 13234 “Communication of Science and Technology” which is offered by DTI in the summer semester.

On Thursday 22^nd May 2025, Andreas Brandt from the eLearning Team of the Multimediazentrum @ BTU will share an overview of the multimedia facilities at the IKMZ which students could potentially utilize to support their development of science communication materials as part of the module 13234 “Communication of Science and Technology” which is offered by DTI in the summer semester.

The Chair of Decarbonization and Transformation of Industry (DTI) at Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU) is pleased to host Annett Heibel, Stakeholder Relationship Specialist at CEMEX Deutschland AG for a guest lecture on the sustainability transformation of CEMEX, a leading cement producer in Germany. Ms. Heibel has extensive industry experience in public relations for infrastructure projects, acceptance and permitting. In her guest lecture, she will be providing insights into actual and future decarbonization projects at the cement plant Ruedersdorf.  

In her guest lecture, students will learn about:

• conventional technologies the cement plant has applied to reduce emissions;
• avoidable, fuel-related emissions vs. unavoidable, process- related emissions;
• most essential raw materials and fuels used in a cement plant;
• how limestone is the root cause of the industry’s CO2 burden;
• new technologies promising the production of CO2-neutral cement by 2030 (i.e., carbon capture & storage vs. carbon capture & utilization).

The guest lecture by Ms. Heibel is offered as a session in the module 13234 “Communication of Science and Technology” which is offered by DTI in the summer semester.

The Chair of Decarbonization and Transformation of Industry (DTI) at Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU) is pleased to host Dr.-Ing. Florian Keller, Deputy Head of the Technology Assessment Division at the Institute of Energy Process Engineering & Chemical Engineering (IEC), TU Bergakademie Freiberg – one of the leading R&D organizations in Europe in the field of circular carbon technologies – for a guest lecture on the fundamentals of environmental assessment in the process industry, with focus on fields of application and research aspects.

Dr. Keller completed his Ph.D. on the topic of life cycle assessment of chemical recycling processes. As a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Chair of Energy Process Technology (EVT) at IEC, he has extensive experience in the modelling and evaluation of innovative processes in the field of chemical process engineering. He also teaches modules on technology assessment and process chain modelling at the TU Bergakademie Freiberg.

The guest lecture by Dr. Keller is offered as a session in the module 14132 “Multidimensional Approaches for Technology Assessment” which is offered by DTI in the summer semester.

The Chair of Decarbonization and Transformation of Industry (DTI) at Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU) is pleased to host Prof. Dr.-Ing. Martin Gräbner – Director of the Institute of Energy Process Engineering & Chemical Engineering (IEC) and Professor for Energy Process Engineering at the TU Bergakademie Freiberg as well as Division Head (Freiberg – Circular Carbon Technologies) for Energy and Process Engineering at the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS – for a guest lecture on methods for the technological assessment of innovations and technologies.

Prof. Gräbner researches, develops and optimizes new processes for the energy and raw material transition. His R&D focus is on the creation of closed carbon cycles using renewable energies. This includes in particular the chemical recycling of residual materials (especially plastics), the production of synthetic raw materials and fuels (e.g. e-fuels) and the thermochemical production of hydrogen (e.g. from biogenic waste). His aim is the basic development of technologies up to industrial scale at the interface between plant engineering, the energy industry, waste management, the chemical industry, and metallurgy.

Before his appointment as Professor at IEC, he was Scientific Director at Air Liquide and was responsible for managing the global R&D strategy for exploratory projects and competence development in the field of syngas production, metal, cement, glass and CO2 capture. He was also Air Liquide’s delegate at the World Economic Forum for Waste Processing in the Low-Carbon Emission Technologies initiative. During his nine years at Air Liquide, he was based at the Frankfurt Innovation Campus (Germany) and had short-term assignments in China. Prof. Gräbner was recognized as Air Liquide’s International Senior Expert for gasification.

Prof. Gräbner will be sharing his insights and expertise on methods for assessing technologies in an engineering context during the guest lecture. This session is offered as part of the module 14132 “Multidimensional Approaches for Technology Assessment” by DTI in the summer semester SS2025.

The Chair of Decarbonization and Transformation of Industry (DTI) at Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU) is pleased to host Alexandra Decker (Chief Officer Corporate Affairs) from CEMEX, as well as Dr. Chiara Iurato (Think Tank Consultant at the Competence Center on Climate Change Mitigation in Energy-Intensive Industries/KEI) as guest speakers and panelists.

Ms. Alexandra Decker has extensive academic as well as industry experience relating to public affairs, corporate communications, and corporate marketing. In her current role at CEMEX, she is primarily responsible for the strategic development of stakeholder relationships concerning relevant political and socio-economic issues. Besides advocating for the decarbonization of the company’s cement production, she also addresses future trends in sustainable construction. In her talk “Applying the STEEP Framework to Industrial Decarbonization: The Case of CCUS in the Cement Sector”, she will provide the industry’s perspective on the goals and challenges for decarbonization technologies. In particularly, through the STEEP lens (Social, Technological, Economic, Ecological, Political), she will explore the strategic role of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in decarbonizing hard-to-abate industries, using the cement sector as a case study. Ms. Decker holds a Master’s degree from University of Tübingen and has been working at CEMEX since 2017.

Dr Chiara Iurato is a Think Tank Consultant at KEI – the Competence Centre on Climate Change Mitigation in Energy-Intensive Industries which provides support and funding for the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions especially for energy-intensive industries in Germany. KEI is a division of Zukunft – Umwelt – Gesellschaft (ZUG) gGmbH, a federal company and specialized project management agency for topics relating to environmental protection, conservation and climate action which works on behalf of several federal ministries to develop and support a wide range of funding programs and strategic projects at both national and international levels. Dr. Iurato’s career has developed around the theme of socio-economic changes towards ecological modernization. At KEI, her current role focuses on the development of standards and labels for climate-friendly basic materials. In her talk “The role of industrial policy in the transformation to a climate-neutral industry”, she will take the different working areas of KEI as a starting point to reflect on the role of industry policy and the opportunities of different policy instruments in Germany for the country’s transition towards a climate-neutral industry. Dr. Iurato holds a Master of Science in Environmental Governance and a PhD from the University of Freiburg (with a focus on the transformation of industrial sectors towards a circular bio-economy). In her work, she adopts a systemic and sociological perspective on markets as manifest structures shaped by a multitude of interconnected actors, including industry, science, politics and the media.

Following the two guest lectures, Prof. Roh Pin Lee will moderate a panel discussion with Ms. Decker and Dr. Iurato to gain deeper insights into the multidimensional opportunities and challenges which are associated with the decarbonization and sustainability transformation of carbon-intensive and hard-to-abate sectors in Germany. Students (and participants) are warmly welcome to engage the panelists in dialogue during the panel discussion.  

This session - incorporating the guest lectures by CEMEX and KEI as well as the panel discussion – is offered as part of the module 14132 “Multidimensional Approaches for Technology Assessment” by DTI in the summer semester. As Ms. Decker and Dr. Iurato will be sharing multidimensional perspectives on industrial decarbonization and the transformation towards climate-neutral industry, their talks may be of potential interest for other BTU students and staff who are active in this area. As such, this session is open to all interested participants from BTU.