Mario Voigt talks to Director Benjamin Redlingshöfer about current and future projects, including the planned "Demonstration and innovation center for textile circular economy" (DICE).
Prof. Dr. Mario Voigt, Chairman of the Thuringian CDU parliamentary group, visited the TITK for the first time on November 10, 2023. Accompanied by his state parliament colleague Maik Kowalleck, CDU district chairman and Saalfeld mayor Dr. Steffen Kania and CDU district manager Martin Friedrich, Voigt talked to TITK director Benjamin Redlingshöfer about current and future projects.
The CDU top candidate was impressed by the range of research and development topics that TITK is working on together with customers and partners. Materials research is "a totally underestimated field". This is precisely where the decisive optimizations take place, said Voigt, who is also his parliamentary group's spokesperson for science and the digital society.
Since the institute was founded almost 70 years ago, cellulose research has always remained a domain. This could now pay off handsomely: With global efforts to find a sustainable replacement for resource-hostile cotton, but also with the EU regulation on the mandatory return and recycling of used textiles from 2025, enormous potential is opening up.
To this end, the TITK is accelerating all efforts in the development of sustainable lyocell fibers. On the other hand, an innovation center for practical fiber-to-fiber recycling in the field of clothing and technical textiles is currently being planned. To this end, 63 potential partners - both regional and international - have already been brought on board through expressions of interest. However, the required investment of EUR 6 to 7 million cannot be raised from the company's own resources, which is why Director Benjamin Redlingshöfer is hoping for positive signals from the state government by the end of the year.
Mario Voigt was certain that Thuringia is the right place to tackle such issues relating to the circular economy. He had recently visited other of the ten business-related research institutes in Thuringia, all of which are self-financing, i.e. operate without basic funding from the federal or state governments. Voigt finds the total number of around 1,000 employees remarkable.
To Benjamin Redlingshöfer's surprise, Mario Voigt did not come empty-handed: He presented the institute director with an apple tree of the "Rubinola" variety, which is praised for being crunchy, very juicy, rich in vitamin C and particularly scab-resistant. Now it's time to find a nice spot for the new tree on the TITK grounds.
