The core focus of the scientific work is to generate innovative solutions and formulate recommendations for complex problems under the premises of sustainability and the circular economy. The employees of the competence centre investigate general as well as special fields of activity, generate project ideas, work on publicly funded research projects and produce specialist publications.

The Building Materials Recycling division is concerned with research into construction site waste and its recycling.

The Gypsum Recycling and Gypsum Substitute Building Materials division is researching solutions to counteract the shortage of FGD gypsum caused by the coal phase-out law that has come into force. In addition to the mobilisation of gypsum waste for recycling, alternative sources of gypsum are also being investigated in order to counteract the increased extraction of natural gypsum. Through the "WIR! - Change through innovation in the region" programme of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the alliance Gypsum recycling as an opportunity for the southern Harz region promoted.

Bioprocess engineering is an innovative key technology with high future potential in the areas of environmental prevention and the energetic utilisation of biological residues and raw materials. Alongside environmental and recycling technology, it is one of the pillars of research and innovation at ThIWert.

The research focus is on the process engineering development of biological remediation and treatment processes in the areas of biogas production, wastewater technology and soil remediation. The core competence lies in the optimisation of the process chain for biogas production from energy crops and agricultural residues. The combination of process engineering and molecular biotechnology enables the observation and optimisation of process activity at a molecular level and thus helps to develop technical solution options that result in efficient resource management.

Plastic recyclates have become an integral part of the plastic cycle. However, the recycling of plastics is not always easy to handle. The more homogeneous the plastics are, the easier they are to recycle. However, it is technologically very complex to separate different plastics by type. In addition to investigations into the recovery of unmixed plastics, the development of a process for the representative sampling of plastic bales, which was transferred to DIN standard 54389 in July 2020, was an important step towards improving material cycles.

Waste electrical and electronic equipment contains valuable metals and other materials that can be reused. However, there is still room for improvement in the recycling yields for many precious and special metals in the treatment and utilisation of old electrical appliances. This also applies to used batteries from electrical appliances, which have been the subject of extensive research in completed projects. In addition to the development of a multi-metal separator, the focus here was on the planning and design of a modular discharge and transport register for post-consumer batteries.

Questions and problems relating to representative sampling play an essential role in the development of customised and efficient recycling processes across all focal areas. New sampling methods, such as the sampling bed developed as part of the research projects, are dedicated to this important topic.

In addition, there are still large quantities of residual and waste materials that cannot be recycled due to their nature or composition. However, selected residual materials can often be converted into new valuable products through carbonisation, i.e. complete and slow pyrolysis, as occurs in the production of charcoal, for example. The research and investigation of this pyrolysis process is another focus of the competence centre's work.