GreenCarbon: Sustainable Carbon Fibers based on Algae – AHP provided the TEA/LCA
On July 28, 2025, an article titled “Sustainable Carbon Fibers based on Algae” will be published on the TU Munich website regarding the GreenCarbon project, which was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) from 2019 to 2023. The research consortium, led by TU Munich’s Werner-Siemens Chair of Synthetic Biotechnology, successfully developed a production route for carbon fibers from renewable raw materials, starting with microalgae.
In addition to other institutes of TU Munich, the research project involved SGL Carbon GmbH, Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, FUCHS Schmierstoffe GmbH, TechnoCarbonTechnologies GbR, AHP GmbH & Co. KG, Daimler AG as an associated partner, and various Fraunhofer Institutes as subcontractors of TUM. As a consortium partner, AHP was responsible for developing an integrated techno-economic overall model for the industrial upscaling of the production process (TEA) and for determining the carbon footprint of the products (LCA).
The project ideas were largely based on the following publication, already released in 2018 and mentioned in the IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 °C by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: Arnold, U., Brück, T., De Palmenaer, A., & Kuse, K. (2018). Carbon Capture and Sustainable Utilization by Algal Polyacrylonitrile Fiber Production: Process Design, Techno-Economic Analysis, and Climate Related Aspects. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 57(23), 7922-7933. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.iecr.7b04828
Project website of TU Munich:
Sustainable Carbon Fibers based on Algae – TUM
AHP Correspondence address:
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Uwe Arnold
Knesebeckstraße 77, 10623 Berlin