Six Innovative Ideas for the Circular Economy Awarded

The Forum Junge Spitzenforschung (Forum Young Top-Level Research) competition offers young scientists from the region the opportunity to present their innovative research approaches. This year, everything revolved around the topic of “Resource-efficient circular economy”. Six project teams from Dortmund and Essen presented their ideas to a jury of business experts on 25 April: Dr. Thomas Seidensticker from the Department of Biochemical and Chemical Engineering made it to the first place with his project “Renewlysis”. A total of EUR 30,000 in prize money went to the winning team and the finalists.

“We are delighted about the numerous applications we have received and about the quality of the ideas that are being presented to us today. Both indicate that this competition is a helpful and sought-after program for young scientists to bring projects into application,” said Dr. Ronald Kriedel, Managing Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Transfer (CET) at TU Dortmund University and TU concept GmbH. The Industrial Research Foundation has joined forces with TU concept to search for original and practice-relevant ideas that have emerged from innovative basic research at universities, colleges, and research institutions in the Ruhr metropolitan region. The six most promising project proposals are then presented by the young scientists to a jury. The aim of the Young Top Researchers Forum is to support the scientists in transferring their ideas into practice.

Project teams with ideas for a resource-efficient circular economy receive EUR 30,000

This year, the competition focused on approaches, technologies, processes, or services that contribute to climate and environmental protection, climate adaptation, resource conservation, and the preservation of biodiversity. Dr. Thomas Seidensticker’s research approach was awarded first place because his idea, according to Marie Ting, jury member and member of the management board at the Südwestfalen Agentur GmbH, was the most feasible, particularly practical, and innovative.

Under the name “Renewlysis”, Seidensticker’s young researcher group is investigating how plant oils can be used in the chemical industry as an alternative to petrochemicals such as mineral oil. The products produced by the team are biodegradable and also better suited for chemical recycling. By replacing finite fossil material with renewable raw materials, industry can become more sustainable and climate-friendly. To this end, the group has developed an innovative catalyst system that has already proven to be practical. The competition rewarded the research approach with a prize of EUR 10,000.

“I am overjoyed for everyone who has been working with me on the idea since 2021 to make domestic plant oils fit for their use in a resource-efficient and circular chemical industry. The fact that our research is being awarded for its practicality and feasibility means so much to me personally because as a scientist I always wanted to generate an impact for more sustainability. With the prize money, we will be able to produce larger quantities of our products in order to sample companies in the chemical industry and thus convince them,” says Seidensticker about the project's success in the competition.

The portrait photo shows the first-placed man holding the first prize in his hand in front of his face. — Dr. Thomas Seidensticker was happy to take first place.

The “PhosFad” project, led by research assistant Ronja Weidemann from the Department of Biochemical and Chemical Engineering (BCI), won the second place, which is endowed with EUR 8,000. The research project aims to develop an environmentally friendly method for recycling phosphate. The team uses special bacteria that can selectively absorb and release phosphate from wastewater. The idea of bioengineer Christoph Held made it to the third place and thus received a prize money of EUR 6,000. His project team “PET-Recycling” is investigating how PET waste can be efficiently recycled, so that fewer fossil sources need to be used in the long term.Three other pitched ideas each received EUR 2,000 in prize money: A group from the Institute of Forming Technology and Lightweight Construction presented method for better recycling aluminum. Another project from the BCI Department demonstrated how shower floors can effectively be used as heat exchangers to reduce energy consumption. In addition, a team from the University of Duisburg-Essen also showed how microorganisms can be used to effectively combat human-made oil pollution.

Economic experts evaluated the ideas

In addition to Marie Ting, the jury included Dr. Arne Elias (Head of the Social Innovation Center at the Dortmund Economic Development Agency), Steffen Brand (Customer Success Manager at Logistikbude GmbH), Dominik Stute (Head of Innovation, Industry, International Networks at the Dortmund Chamber of Industry and Commerce), and Dr. Joachim Kaiser (Patent Manager at PROvendis GmbH). The experts assessed the ideas submitted based on how relevant and innovative the proposed projects were. The economic and social potential of the ideas also played a role in the decision.

More information about the competition

The six best ideas submitted were presented to the jury on 25 April.
Rainer Lüdtke, Chairman of Stiftung Industrieforschung, praised the project teams’ pitches.
Jury member Marie Ting thanked the finalists and explained the panel’s decision.
The jury consisted of the five business experts Dr. Joachim Kaiser, Dr. Arne Elias, Marie Ting, Steffen Brand, and Dominik Stute (from left to right).
The “PhosFad” project team was presented with the trophy for second place: Abirtha Suthakar, Ronja Weidemann, Fabienne Ryll, and Jan Seemann (from left to right).
Dr. Christoph Held, Maria Schlüter, Lukas Seppelfricke, and Dr. Kerstin Wohlgemuth (from left to right) from "PET-Recycling" took third place.
Delighted to receive 2,000 euros in prize money: Dr. Lisa Voskuhl (l.) and Dr. Sabina Marks from the UDE project “Oil Warriors of Nature”...
... and the team from the Institute of Forming Technology and Lightweight Construction: Gabriel Marin, Johannes Gebhard, Oliver Schulz, and Alessandro Selvaggio (from left to right).