How do we use energy and resources efficiently, safely and sustainably?

The energy transition is one of the key societal challenges of our time. To counteract climate change, we need to develop highly efficient technologies and processes so that we can generate, distribute and use energy in a safe, reliable, affordable and environmentally friendly way. This can only be achieved with scientific and technological innovations that quickly find their way out of the laboratory and into practice. 

In addition to a secure energy supply and the reduction of energy demand, it is above all the extraction and recycling of raw materials and the disposal of nuclear waste that pose major challenges for current and future generations.

At HZDR, the energy research area is divided into two programs:

• Materials and Technologies for the Energy Transition 
• Nuclear Waste Management, Safety and Radiation Research

Materials and Technologies for the Energy Transition

For a CO₂-neutral energy supply, the conversion, transportation, storage and use of energy must be interlinked. In the “Materials and Technologies for the Energy Transition” program, scientists are developing specific solutions for these individual areas. The focus is on marketable technologies for the storage and conversion of energy, taking into account a resource-efficient circular economy. The research results are to be quickly applied as products and services for industry.

The energy transition also includes increasing resource and energy efficiency, with the aim of closing the main raw material and product cycles for metals and minerals. At the Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology, researchers are therefore developing innovative and environmentally friendly technologies for the exploration, extraction and recycling of metal-bearing and mineral raw materials in the interests of a sustainable circular economy. To this end, it works closely with the TU Bergakademie Freiberg.

A central objective of the energy transition is to reduce the energy demand. This is where the scientists at the Institute of Fluid Dynamics come in, researching new, energy-efficient solutions for industrial processes that have so far been characterized by particularly high energy requirements. The main areas of application are resource technology processes, wastewater treatment processes and waste heat recovery processes. The institute is working closely with TU Dresden on this. Electricity storage systems are essential for the new energy system with its high proportion of fluctuating primary sources. The Institute of Fluid Dynamics is therefore working on new types of liquid metal batteries that could store large amounts of energy at relatively low cost.

Current Research Topics

• Electrochemical Energy Storage

• Energy Efficient Processes

• Resource Technology

Objectives

• To better understand transport processes from the molecular scale at interfaces up to the process scale
• Develop simulation tools for the calculation of multiphase flows with mass and heat transfer
• Develop and implement methods of intensification as well as measurement, instrumentation and control of industrial processes
• Develop large-scale liquid metal batteries
• Acquire basic knowledge and develop innovative technologies to extract mineral and metal-bearing raw materials from complex primary (geogenic) and secondary (anthropogenic) sources economically and ecologically
• Quantify the possibilities and limits of a sustainable circular economy and develop practicable solutions for its implementation together with society, interest groups and decision-makers
• Provide sustainable technologies and strategies for German companies as a basis for economic networking with resource-rich countries
• Train a new generation of highly qualified scientists and technicians for the German raw materials industry and the university sector

Nuclear Waste Management, Safety and Radiation Research

Even though the nuclear phase-out in Germany was completed in 2023, the scientists involved in the Helmholtz program “Nuclear Waste Management, Safety and Radiation Research” continue to deal with questions regarding the safety of nuclear power plants and repositories. On the one hand, many questions regarding the dismantling of plants and the treatment and safe long-term storage of radioactive waste remain unanswered. On the other hand, nuclear energy certainly has a long-term perspective worldwide, as numerous new construction projects in other countries, including neighboring countries, show. It is therefore also in Germany's interest to participate in the further development of the safety standards of such reactors through its own research. The researchers at the Institute of Resource Ecology and the Institute of Fluid Dynamics thus make a significant contribution to protecting people and the environment from the effects of radioactive radiation.

Current Research Topics

• Nuclear waste disposal

• Safety of nuclear reactors                                           

Objectives

• Develop a better understanding of processes for the long-term safety analysis of nuclear repositories in the deep geological underground
• Development of new equipment systems to achieve a better process understanding of the distribution of radionuclides in bio- and geosystems at the molecular and cellular level
• Collecting data for the long-term safety analysis of nuclear repositories
• Development and application of methods for the safety analysis of nuclear reactors currently in operation and new reactor types being planned in neighboring countries
• Investigation of ageing phenomena caused by neutron irradiation in nuclear reactor construction materials
• Ensuring the maintenance of competence in nuclear safety research by promoting young scientists