In collaboration with the Fraunhofer Society, students have the opportunity to complete a practice-oriented bachelor’s or master’s thesis at Fraunhofer IST in the field of sustainable material supply chains.
The “Sustainability Management and Life Cycle Engineering” department at Fraunhofer IST focuses on the development of life-cycle-based methods and digital tools for sustainable products and production processes. Holistic life-cycle engineering encompasses ecology (life-cycle assessment) and economics (life-cycle costing).
With the ongoing mobility transition, the goal is to make the mobility sector more sustainable. In particular, the origin of materials often has a significant impact on the ecological footprint. At the same time, the EU is increasingly relying on recycled materials to reduce dependence on international supply chains. To derive meaningful recommendations for action for industry and policymakers from the results of life cycle assessments, it is therefore essential to consider the availability and origin of both primary and secondary materials.
The specific research question may cover the following aspects, depending on the duration and focus of the work:
- Development of a concept for creating material availability models (primary and secondary materials) for integration with life cycle assessment
- Requirements analysis and definition of required data
- Analysis of the availability of data sources
- Concept for linking the data
- and much more
- Development of material availability models for selected metals in the mobility sector, such as aluminum
- Development and application of a concept for the automated integration of material availability models with the performance of life cycle assessments
This thesis project enables the direct application of scientific methods in a real-world corporate project and offers the prospect of subsequent work-study employment at Fraunhofer IST for further professional guidance. Please refer to the call for applications for additional details.
Supervision will be provided jointly by the AIP and Fraunhofer IST. Please direct any questions regarding supervision at the AIP to Dr. Yannik Graupner in advance. Applications for this thesis project may be submitted to either the AIP or Fraunhofer IST.