During the Summer Semester, students from the DAAD Semester Exchange Programme on “Implementation of the SDGs – A Comparative Approach in India, Nepal and Germany”, accompanied by the project coordinator Dr. Ruth Areli García León, travelled to Wolfsburg to visit Ostfalia’s Campus Wolfsburg, the Institute of Recycling, and the Open Hybrid LabFactory (OHLF). There, they attended two lectures and two guided visits.
The first event was led by Dr. Max Juraschek, Ostfalia’s professor of Sustainable Product Engineering and Circular Material Flows. In his lecture, Prof. Dr. Juraschek introduced students to product sustainability, life cycle assessment, resource efficiency, and material flows, highlighting the circular economy’s relevance to sustainability. He then led students to the Recycling Laboratory to learn “hands-on” about plastic recycling and injection moulding, where they created their own recycled bottle openers.
Further, Dr. Dennis Backofen, Ostfalia’s professor of Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology and Deputy Head of the Fraunhofer Center of Circular Economy for Mobility (CCEM), delivered a lecture introducing students to hydrogen technology and its current and future applications for sustainability. To aid understanding, students had the opportunity to produce hydrogen by separating water into hydrogen and oxygen via electrolysis in the classroom. After the lecture, Prof. Dr. Backofen also led a visit to the OHLF, considered one of Germany and Europe’s leading research campuses for developing sustainable, circular-economy-based solutions for industrial vehicle production. There, students observed the latest tool for automated disassembly and assembly in automotive engineering. Prof. Dr. Backofen further explained that the OHLF focuses on lightweight construction and the circular economy to ensure a future-oriented and sustainable automotive industry. It also focuses on new technologies aimed at reducing the CO2 footprint and recovering strategic raw materials.
