The UN-Year 2012 is themed "International Year of Sustainable Energy for all" and focuses on the reduction of global energy consumption by about 40 % until 2030. In order to reach this ambitious goal, resource and energy efficiency in production technologies can make a significant contribution, Dr. Thomas Bieringer is convinced. The physicist is the managing director of Invite, a research organization which was established as a German private public partnership between TU Dortmund and Bayer Technology Services.

Invite is one of five members of the cluster FuMaChem (Future Manufacturing Concepts in the Chemical and Pharmaceutical Industry). The consortium offers complete solutions for innovative and resource-friendly production processes. FuMaChem's goal is to introduce these abilities and technologies to an interested audience in Asia, an approach which the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) supports within the campaign "Leading Ideas for Green Production - Green Production Technologies". Dr. Thomas Bieringer talks about the concept behind FuMaChem.

CHEManager Europe: Dr. Bieringer, which contribution could innovative production processes make to fulfill global sustainability goals?

Thomas Bieringer: About 20 % of the global greenhouse gas worldwide emission is caused by industrial production. In particular, the German industry is strongly committed to a reduction of greenhouse gas emission. Since 1990, the chemistry sector has increased productivity by 42 %. But at the same time total energy consumption was reduced by about 33 % and absolute greenhouse gas emissions was almost cut by half. Here, growth and energy consumption are decoupled. This can only be achieved using new technologies!

From your point of view, how can the development of innovations be stimulated? What levers do we have at our disposal?

Thomas Bieringer: Germany is a leading nation in developing cutting-edge technologies in the field of resource efficiency. These technologies can help solve global problems. But in order to achieve this, they must be able to develop and be made more widely known, and that's why it's so important to boost the transfer of knowledge.

Could you describe how FuMaChem pursues this approach?

Thomas Bieringer: FuMaChem is a roadshow which we use to demonstrate German solutions in the field of resource-friendly production processes in high-growth countries like China, India and Singapore as well as to articulate our future visions. We don't want to do research in quiet seclusion, but to open up our laboratories and to get every stakeholder involved. Thus, we want to emphasize where we are able to make contributions to a more sustainable economy.

What do you think is the relevance of the topic "energy and resource efficiency" in China, which is the most important target country for the cluster FuMaChem?

Thomas Bieringer: It is essential that all countries collaborate on this global issue. The first thing which caught my eye when I arrived in Shanghai was a poster with the slogan: For a green future. So, acting in an energy and resource efficient way is very important for China, too, and the five-year Plan of the Chinese Government is clarifying this as well.

Invite works on new sustainable production concepts for a "Factory of the Future". In this context, the production of pharmaceutical substances, among others, is to be optimized. Are there any significant differences between the "Factory of the future" and the "Factory of the Present"?

Thomas Bieringer: The established processes will continue to be massively improved. But beyond that, completely new technologies will be adopted in some fields. Take, for example, our production containers for small- and medium-scaled production. Our containers consist of individually manufactured modules and in these modules chemical reactions are carried out. What we offer is a modularized and standardized concept similar to a LEGO-kit. The container is the platform and the bricks are the modules which you can put into the container, quite flexibly creating different products.

On the one hand this approach has technical benefits because now, by using our special so called process-intensified production, we are able to carry out chemical reactions that are difficult or even impossible to realize using conventional processes. On the other hand there are ecological advantages, e.g. because with this technology you need less solvent and generate fewer by-products. In addition, this technology offers economic advantages, because it requires less capital to build and to operate those standardized plants. We also think that with this new technical approach we can reduce the product development time significantly. Last, but not least, container-format production facilities open up completely new possibilities for flexible reaction with regard to individual requirements or capacities.