Energy from Nature

"Biogas production plays a key role in the targeted energy transition," Prof. Dr. Isabel Kuperjans, head of the NOWUM-Energy Institute, emphasises. The institute was founded in 1998, initially with a thematic focus on mechanical engineering and electrical engineering. However, on the initiative of Prof. Dr. Klaus-Peter Dielmann, then head of the Institute (Professor at the Faculty of Energy Technology), and our current Rector Prof. Dr. Marcus Baumann (then Professor at the Faculty of Chemistry and Biotechnology), the Institute's researchers were to work on the topic of biogas in an interdisciplinary manner.

Since 2006, they have been working on issues related to biogas production. Karl-Heinz Ertl, an engineer at the Faculty of Energy Technology, and Prof. Dr. Thorsten Selmer, Faculty of Chemistry and Biotechnology, were both also instrumental in supporting the expansion of biogas research in Jülich in the early days. Biogas research was also further advanced thanks to the in-house "mini-fermenter" with 1.5 cubic metres which has been located in the research area available on FH Aachen's Campus Jülich since 2012, and was acquired with the support of NRW funding.