Resource Demand and Potentials
About
The Resource Demand and Potentials team examines both the demand for and supply potential of resources. The supply side includes primary, secondary, and unconventional resources and reserves of materials, land and water as well as the associated supply routes. The team uses this to develop knowledge about resources available today and in the future that could be available to cover resource demands. The team integrates this potential with analyses of demand under different socio-technical and geopolitical developments. With this the team can identify technology and material-specific bottlenecks and alternatives.
Research Topics
With the ETHOS model suite, our team has a comprehensive range of tools and models at its disposal to investigate the above-mentioned research fields on the resource and energy system side. To this end, the resource requirements of various energy system technologies are examined in detail. The focus here is on critical materials for the energy transition. Material cycles including recycling and second-life use as well as end-of-life resource requirements are also considered. Our team's expertise is based on an extensive collection of resource requirements and demands as well as data for the parameterization of technology-specific models.
Members
Forschungsfelder
1) Resource criticality and second life of batteries
Energy systems are becoming increasingly important as they play a central role in the implementation of renewable energies and electromobility. Research will initially focus on the resource requirements and criticality of both current and future battery technologies. Innovative approaches such as second-life options and recycling strategies are also considered in order to extend the lifetime of batteries and optimize the use of resources. The methodological goal is to integrate material flows into the ETHOS model suite in order to accurately map resource requirements and optimize future supply strategies.
2) Resources for green hydrogen production
An elementary component of the advancing energy transition is the production of green hydrogen through electrolysis, which requires the use of rare metals (platinum, iridium, etc.) as well as large quantities of water. In view of the planned global capacity expansion targets for electrolyzers, there is a risk that any necessary resources will not be available in sufficient quantities, thus jeopardizing the transformation to greenhouse gas neutral energy systems. The research focus is therefore on calculating possible scenarios for resource requirement developments using technology-specific modeling in the ETHOS model suite. These scenarios are then used to determine possible resource bottlenecks and alternative strategies for circumventing them.
3) Basic industries
The highly energy-intensive basic materials industry forms the material foundation for the entire industrial value chain in Germany and around the world: construction, the automotive industry, and mechanical and plant engineering. In addition, the basic materials industry plays a special role as the last stop for recycling processes in a functioning circular economy. Like all other industries, the basic materials industry is in global competition for customers for its products and for the raw materials and energy needed to produce them. Therefore, this research area deals with questions of raw material and energy demand and possible bottlenecks of the basic material industry on the way to greenhouse gas neutrality in Germany and worldwide. A methodological focus is the techno-economic analysis, evaluation and optimization of current and future industrial processes based on the ETHOS model suite. Our goal is to provide decision makers with model-based scenarios for the transformation of the basic materials industry and the resulting cross-sectoral impacts.
Last Modified: 30.04.2025