On Wednesday, December 11, 2024, the guest speaker of the public lecture series "Open BTU" Prof. Dr. Armin Grunwald focused on the roles of technology and innovation – as well as technology assessment – in shaping a good future.

In his lecture, Prof. Grunwald pointed out that technological progress is of central importance for the transition to a sustainable and climate-friendly future. However, he cautioned that in order for technology and innovation to have the desired and, if possible, no negative consequences, careful technology assessment is required in advance. Prof. Grunwald also highlighted how a close alignment with the needs and demands of a region is necessary to facilitate sustainable technology design in structural change regions such as Lusatia. He furthermore emphasized the integral role that technology assessment could play in providing future knowledge and orientation for decisions e.g., through social and political advice.

Prof. Dr. Armin Grunwald is head of the Office for Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag (TAB) as well as the director of the Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). The Open BTU session with Prof. Grunwald is moderated by Prof. Roh Pin Lee, Chair of Decarbonization and Transformation of Industry at the BTU.

More information: https://www.b-tu.de/news/artikel/27953-vortragsabend-ueber-technik-und-innovation-fuer-die-gestaltung-einer-guten-zukunft

On 5^th December 2024, the network members of the German National Network for a Circular Carbon Economy (NK2 Network) came together for a workshop on “Chemical Recycling: Progress in Pyrolysis Development & Deployment”. The workshop was held in the Victor’s Residenz-Hotel Saarlouis and featured technology developers (e.g., OMV, COVESTRO, LyondellBasell, Nexus Circular, ARCUS Greencycling Technologies, Pyrum) who are active in the development and deployment of pyrolysis technologies for the recirculation of different types of carbon-containing waste as alternative feedstock for chemical production.

Prof. Roh Pin Lee – scientific coordinator of the NK2 Network – also contributed a presentation at the workshop to introduce the STEEP-CarbonTrans Online Tool which uses interactive process flow diagrams to illustrate near- and long-term transformation pathways for the German chemical industry. This tool was developed by Prof. Lee in cooperation with colleagues from the Institute of Energy Process Engineering and Chemical Engineering, TU Bergakademie Freiberg and with the support of Climate Media Factory.

Rounding up the workshop, a technical tour to the demonstration plant of Pyrum Innovations AG in Dillingen also enabled network members the opportunity to view the innovative pyrolysis plant for tire recycling which has been successfully commissioned and operated by Pyrum.

On Wednesday, November 27, 2024, the guest speaker of the public lecture series "Open BTU" Prof. Dr. Ortwin Renn focused on citizens’ expectations on energy policy. In his presentation, Prof. Renn highlighted the support of the German citizens for the energy transition. However, he also pointed out that while the goal is not controversial, how the energy transition and climate neutrality could be achieved is. Drawing on survey results which indicated that over 50 percent of respondents are dissatisfied with the current progress of the energy transition, he indicated that citizens expect politicians to examine transformation measures not only for their effectiveness and efficiency, but also for their distributional effects and social justice. Moreover, many people want to be actively involved in shaping their living environment. This thus requires new participatory methods of political decision-making. Cases were shown where effective implementation of participatory methods have led to an increase in the willingness of the population to support concrete measures for the energy transition.

Prof. Ortwin Renn is the Chairman of the Sustainability Advisory Board and the Sustainability Platform of the State of Brandenburg as well as a member of the Steering Committee of the German Federal Government's Climate Protection Science Platform. He is also the Chair of the Scientific Board of Trustees of the Citizens' Climate Council. The Open BTU session with Prof. Renn is moderated by Prof. Roh Pin Lee, Chair of Decarbonization and Transformation of Industry at the BTU.

More information:https://www.b-tu.de/news/artikel/27844-vortragsabend-beleuchtet-die-energiewende-im-spiegel-der-oeffentlichen-meinung

On 13^th November 2024, Prof. Alexander Buchheim, Professor for Energy and Building Technology at the Berufsakademie Sachsen (University of Cooperative Education, Saxony) provided an overview into the Meissen District as well as actual and future challenges and opportunities which the region is facing as it transforms to meet the challenges of decarbonization. The highlights he provided – including “Energy Experience Points” and “R3 – Reallabor Rittergut Riesa” – enabled BTU students to gain valuable insights into the cooperation between his university and companies to enable students from the University of Cooperative Education to gain practical experiences under the mentorship of industry experts and specialists to prepare them for their future careers, and at the same time facilitate companies in gaining valuable early access to young adults and accompany their journey as they developed their skills, knowledge and expertise over the course of their studies.  The guest lecture is offered as part of the module 13234 “Communication of Science and Technology” which is offered by DTI in the winter semester 2024/2025.

More information under: https://www.ba-riesa.de/die-akademie/aktuelles/aktuelles-detailseite/meissen-district-energy-transition-industry-and-beyond#cc_main

On 23^rd October 2024, as part of the BTU Academy for Seniors (SeniorenAkademie), Prof. Lee shared insights into chemical recycling and it’s potential contribution to Germany’s transformation towards circular economy and climate neutrality. Following her presentation, participants of the Academy for Seniors engaged her in dialogue on the current status of recycling in Germany, and the opportunities for chemical recycling to contribute to the structural changes occuring in coal regions in transition.

New publication in the form of a book chapter “Beyond Systems Analysis to a Multidimensional Approach in Technology Assessment” by Prof. Roh Pin Lee with co-author Dr. Witold-Roger Poganietz in the Handbook of Technology Assessment published by Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.   This book chapter presents a multidimensional approach which integrates theoretical/conceptual approaches and methodologies from multiple disciplines for technology assessment. It illustrates how the multidimensional socio-technological-ecological-economical-political (i.e., STEEP) approach – building on systems analysis and integrating a consideration of the human dimension – can contribute to a systemic assessment of alternative transformation routes based on the example of the chemical industry in Germany. The publication is available under: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781035310685.00048

On 2^nd August, Prof. Lee accompanied a Singapore delegation comprising of visitors from the Singapore Food Agency (SFA), Public Utilities Board (PUB), National Environment Agency (NEA) as well as SembCorp to the DBFZ Deutsches Biomasseforschungszentrum gemeinnützige GmbH. Besides a technical tour of DBFZ’s extensive biogas facilities at laboratory and pilot-scale, the delegation also engaged in exchanges with AEV Energy GmbH and DBFZ to learn about their cooperation and progress in biogas production from 100% chicken manure.

On 17^th July 2024, during the site visit for technical exchanges with experts from the Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ICC CAS) as well as a technical tour of ICC’s pilot facilities, Prof. Lee also contributed a presentation on  “Transformation towards green chemistry: Economic & ecological feasibility of waste gasification for methanol production in China” at the ICC CAS Clean Energy Technology Seminar. After the visit to ICC, Prof. Lee also visited the Shanxi Research Institute of Huairou Lab which is currently being set up in Taiyuan with a focus R&D to support the decarbonization of carbon intensive industries in China.

The inaugural meeting of the Brandenburg Climate Advisory Board took place on 15^th July 2024 at the Brandenburg Ministry of Agriculture, Environment and Climate Protection (MLUK). Prof. Lee is one of 12 members who have been appointed as part of this Scientific Climate Advisory Board to provide scientific advice and support to the MLUK for its implementation and updates to Brandenburg’s Climate Plan.

More information: https://mluk.brandenburg.de/mluk/de/klimaschutz/klimaschutz/wissenschaftlicher-klimabeirat/# and https://www.b-tu.de/en/news/article/27015-prof-bernd-hirschl-und-prof-roh-pin-lee-in-klimabeirat-brandenburg-berufen

On Thursday 11th July, Prof. Lee engaged interested young adults attending the QLEE Future Academy Lusatia 2024 on the topic of chemical recycling and how it could present a sustainable solution for the waste challenge. Based on the example of plastic waste, the participant of the Future Academy were introduced to the conventional production of plastics from crude oil, as well as its alternative production from carbon-containing waste via chemical recycling. How chemical recycling could contribute to the decarbonization and transformation of carbon-intensive industries, as well as the structural change of regions such as Lusatia was also discussed.

On 20^th June, Prof. Lee was invited to an expert panel discussion as part of the Fraunhofer IEG Summer Strategy Meeting 2024 together with three external experts – Mario Müller (Managing Director BDEW - Central Germany), Dr. Ella Middelhoff (Senior Consultant, bbh Consulting AG), Prof. Dr. Johannes Schiffer (Fraunhofer IEG Energy Management and Control), and Björn Drechsler (Fraunhofer IEG Business Models for System Transformation and Technology Transfer) – to introduce the entire Fraunhofer IEG Institute to the current issues surrounding sector coupling – a key research focus of Fraunhofer IEG which is currently receiving a lot of media attention, and to provide an overview of the topics being dealt with in practice.

On 13th June 2024, Dr. Bernd Hezel from Climate Media Factory provided insights into the Climate Media Factory's approach to climate communication. Besides sharing practical learnings, he also discussed about the barriers to action in the context of the climate crisis and on good ingredients of communication formats to overcome those with the students.

Dr. Bernd Hezel researches, designs and realizes audio-visual climate communication and decision support formats at the Climate Media Factory. As a visiting professor at the Film University Babelsberg, he dealt with stories about / images of the future and operative media forms that can motivate people to imagine, negotiate and create alternative futures. Previously, he worked at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research on a decarbonization model for Europe and made it interactively accessible for decision support. He contributed to award-winning theatre productions and wrote and directed many animated short films, several of which won international festivals. He also received a doctoral degree from Heidelberg University for work in quantum theory.

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

On 12th June 2024, Prof. Lee visited KEI Think Tank jointly with Dr. Bernd Hezel from Climate Media Factory for an exchange on different formats of science communciation and their effectiveness in supporting the communication of opportunities and challenge of industrial transformation to different stakeholder groups.

On Friday 07.06.2024, Prof. Lee was invited by Energy Saxony for a presentation on “Acceptance and the role of science communication for industry transformation” during the meeting of the EWI (Energy and Hydrogen Alliance in the Industry Region Meißen) Network to share her research and insights on the role of societal, market and political acceptance influencing the industrial transformation in Germany. The meeting was hosted by one of EWI network members ERVIN – a steel producer situated in Glaubitz. Before the EWI meeting, there was the opportunity for a site tour of ERVIN’s steel production facility which uses electric arc furnaces to convert scrap metal into high quality steel shot and grit abrasives.

On Thursday 06.06.2024 afternoon, 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 – gave a guest lecture to around 90 BTU students 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 the Chair of Decarbonization and Transformation of Industry (DTI) in the summer semester.

On Thursday 06.06.2024 morning, Katie Myers – a journalist, documentarian, and playwright in Knoxville, Tennessee, in the U.S. – gave a guest lecture to over 70 BTU students on her journalism activities relating to energy transition and coal politics in the coalfields of Central Appalachia, where coal's ongoing decline has contributed to fiscal and environmental problems for the region's largely rural communities. Besides discussing environmental journalism as a means of science communication, she also highlighted the roles journalists could play in helping the public to understand science, technology, and health, particularly in this acute moment of climate crisis and fossil fuel transition.

Katie has previously worked as a climate solutions reporting fellow at Grist, and a reporter at WMMT 88.7 FM, an eastern Kentucky community radio station. Her work has appeared in the BBC, National Public Radio, and the New Republic, among others.  She is traveling through Germany and Poland this spring on the Transatlantic Media Fellowship, a grant program through the Heinrich Boell Foundation to encourage journalistic exchange between Europe and the U.S. 

This guest lecture is offered as a session in the module 13234 “Communication of Science and Technology” which is offered by the Chair of Decarbonization and Transformation of Industry (DTI) in the summer semester.

On 4^th June 2024, Prof. Lee joined colleagues from the Cluster Decarbonization in Industries (CDI) on the visit to Ellery Studio for a creative exchange to concretize the plans for a new CDI Workshop Series. The workshop series will be held in 2025 and targeted at CDI partners who would be interested to build up/refresh their skills in strategic foresight. Core focus of the planned workshops is to explore diverse future scenarios to prepare industry and other stakeholders for future changes and to identify new fields of action as well as business models. Prof. Lee from BTU will be providing scientific support throughout the entire project period.

More Information under https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7204083101361188866

On 23.05.2023,  Maike Horlacher (Manager Sustainability Consulting) and Fabian Loske (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 – provided 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 also shared important methodological considerations in the application of LCA to chemical recycling. Last but not least, they illustrated the practical applications of LCA with industry case studies.

The guest lecture by Sphera is offered as part of the module 14132 “Multidimensional Approaches for  Technology Assessment” which is offered by the Chair of Decarbonization and Transformation of Industry (DTI) in the summer semester.

On Thursday 2nd May 2024, Dr. Raoul Voss, Senior Consultant for Sustainability at Capgemini Engineering shared his experiences and insights on methodologies for economic evaluations, focusing on the example of chemical recycling as a transformation route for the chemical industry. The online guest lecture by Dr. Raoul Voss is offered as part of the module 14132 “Multidimensional Approaches for  Technology Assessment” which is offered by the Chair of Decarbonization and Transformation of Industry (DTI) in the summer semester. 

New publication “Decarbonization potential and economic viability of chemical recycling for China’s transformation towards carbon neutrality: Case analysis of global warming potential and costs of municipal solid waste gasification for methanol production” by Prof. Roh Pin Lee with co-authors Dr. Raoul Voss, Dr. Florian Keller, Dr. Qiuliang Huang and Prof. Magnus Fröhling in the Elsevier journal Resources, Conservation and Recycling. This article comparatively evaluates the decarbonization and economic potential of gasification-based chemical recycling of municipal solid waste against conventional waste treatment (i.e., landfilling and waste incineration). The publication is available under: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2024.107613

On Thursday 11th April 2024, Dr. Jens Hannes, R&D Head for Circular Economy at RWE Power AG, shared insights into the systemic & multidimensional aspects faced in the transformation of carbon intensive industries based on the example of RWE. The guest lecture by Dr. Hannes is the first session in the module 14132 “Multidimensional Approaches for Technology Assessment” which is offered by the Chair of Decarbonization and Transformation of Industry (DTI) in the 2024 summer semester. 

New publication “Life cycle assessment of chemical recycling: Recommendations for a systemic assessment of its contribution to the circular carbon economy and zero waste transition” by Prof. Roh Pin Lee, Dr. Florian Keller and Dr. Raoul Voss in the book Towards Net-Zero Carbon Initiatives:  A Life Cycle Assessment Perspective (World Scientific Publishing). In this book chapter, methodological issues are identified and suggestions for overcoming challenges associated with the application of life cycle assessment (LCA) in the chemical recycling context are provided. Additionally, checklists are introduced to support practitioners in their LCA evaluation of chemical recycling technologies in the form of waste pyrolysis and waste gasification. The publication is available under https://doi.org/10.1142/9789811275661_0007.

On 17^th January 2024, Prof. Lee (Chair for Dekarbonization & Transformation of Industry) and Ms. Christa Müller (Technology & Innovation Department) from the BTU Cottbus visited the GMB Glasmanufaktur Brandenburg GmbH in Tschernitz/Brandenburg. GMB is an energy intensive industry specializing in the manufacture of solar and specialty glass. The discussion focused on exploring potential opportunities for collaboration between GMB and the BTU to support GMB’s sustainability transformation as well as avenues to increase local/regional awareness of GMB’s activities via science communication & engagement activities, before concluding with a site visit to GMB’s glass production hall.

On 10^th January 2024, the CDI Steering Committee – namely Prof. Mario Ragwitz and Dr. Thorsten Spillmann (Fraunhofer IEG), Prof. Uwe Riedel (DLR Institute of Low-Carbon Industrial Processes), Richarda Tänzer-von Daake (Competence Center on Climate Change Mitigation in Energy-Intensive Industries/KEI) and Prof. Roh Pin Lee from the BTU Cottbus – came together with Andreas Findeisen (Head CDI Coordination Office) and other CDI colleagues for a review of past activities as well as a discussion of planned activities in 2024 as well as ideas for the further development of the CDI network.

More information under https://de.linkedin.com/posts/cluster-dekarbonisierung-industrie_dekarbonisierung-teamwork-strategie-activity-7151544687307194370-B965

On 10.01.2024, Prof. Roh Pin Lee was invited for exchanges at the Competence Center on Climate Change Mitigation in Energy-Intensive Industries (KEI). In the introductory meeting with Dr. Kai Winkelmann and his team (Anna Malakhova, Monica Villanueva, Maria dela Garza) from Think Tank and Strategic Projects as well as with Ricarda Tänzer-von Daake (KEI’s deputy director), common topics of interest and potential synergy between KEI Think Tank and the Chair of Decarbonization and Transformation of Industry at the BTU Cottbus were identified. Especially the relevance of science communication as an instrument to support public acceptance research and transformation processes for decarbonization in both national and international contexts was highlighted, and opportunities for intensifying the collaboration between the two organizations discussed.

More information under https://de.linkedin.com/posts/kompetenzzentrum-klimaschutz-industrie_kei-dekarbonisierung-industrie-activity-7151183920187731968-ZIJc