Robert Böhm

Robert Böhm

Personal Information

  1. Name: Robert Böhm
  2. Position/Title: Professor for Composite Lightweight Engineering
  3. Department: Faculty of Engineering (HTWK Leipzig)

Professional Background

  1. Briefly describe your professional background and area of expertise:

    I’m a composite engineer with approx. 25 years of experience in R&D. When I was younger, I started with the development of textile-reinforced concrete. Later, my main focus was modelling fracture and damage phenomena in fiber reinforced plastic composites. That was the topic of my PhD thesis and most of my post-doc years. Again later, I had another shifted focus towards materials science, and worked a couple of years on the development of tailored carbon fibers. After many years at TU Dresden, I became full professor at HTWK Leipzig in 2020. Nowadays, I pretty much focus all topics in the composite field, at least in teaching, which does not mean that I don’t have my favorite research topics, composite circularity being on of them.

  2. What inspired you to pursue a career in this related field, e.g., composite materials recycling?:

    Like pretty often in science (and in life as well), a lot of things just happen by coincidence. Back in the days when I was at TU Dresden, we conducted some very preliminary research on solvolysis with supercritical water to reclaim fibers from composites. In fact, we more had an idea of what we wanted to do rather than having good results. I soon realized that the time was right for this, the general circularity topic was highly relevant, and I could create a relatively huge and relevant impact by specializing on composite circularity. And then it started.
     

Role in EURECOMP

  1. What is your role in the EURECOMP project?:

    I’m the leader of work package 1 of EuReComp. That is the main strategic work package. I’m also involved in work package 3. There, we focus repurpose solutions for large-scale structures. Beyond the profane inner logic of the project, I consider myself also as one of the EuReComp fathers. I still remember the time in 2021 when everybody was kept in Covid-19 lockdowns, a handful of people, other EuReComp fathers and mothers including me, were creating EuReComp main idea in countless Zoom meetings.

  2. Can you describe your main responsibilities and tasks?

    In our strategic work, we try to align the main research directions from EuReComp with European policy, industrial needs, and recent developments. We try to identify bottlenecks that prevent EuReComp circular economy approaches from becoming reality, and we try to address them properly. Together with colleagues from Circularise, Strategem, and TU Dresden, we have set the foundation for business models and EuReComp so-called R6-strategy, we developed a materials stream tracking software, and we identified so-called eco-settings, closed loops for end-of-life materials that are used in new products.

  3. How does your work contribute to the overall goals of the EURECOMP project?:

    Strategic work is always rather abstract and hard to present nice and shiny. But obviously, the general strategy we follow is behind all the Eurecomp results.

   For me as a classically educated engineer, dealing with circular economy principles caused a remarkable shift of mindset. That is very inspiring.

Project Insights

  1. What do you find most exciting about working on the EURECOMP project?:

    I learn new things in every meeting. It’s actually pretty exciting to realize what I actually don’t know. And EuReComp gives me the possibility to learn it from smart and enthusiastic people. For me as a “classical educated” engineer and materials scientist who traditionally always had the focus on developing high-performance materials only, dealing with the principles and options in circular economy caused a remarkable shift of mindset. That is very inspiring.

  2. What has been the most challenging aspect of your work on this project?

    I think already in the first EuReComp year I realized that despite the fact that a significant number of composite circularity solutions already exist, plenty of them cannot become reality because their realization is slowed down by bureaucracy, overregulation, standards which are 30 years old, and industrial in-box thinking. Two years ago, the minister of economic affairs in Germany had to state in front of the parliament that “wind turbine blades cannot be recycled”. And that minister was from the Green party. He should better have called EuReComp before that incident. Albeit circularity solutions are available, they are not perceived by politics and society. To change that is a very important topic for EuReComp.

  3. Can you share a significant milestone or achievement your team has reached so far?

    When I saw the video of the large-scale test of the floating PV panels made from repurposed wind turbine blades in the water channel in Porto this February, I thought: wow, this is pretty impressive. And pretty cool as well. That work was done in work package 3 with the main effort taken by our colleagues at Inegi but my group helped a bit here and there.

 Despite many existing composite circularity solutions, their implementation is slowed down by bureaucracy, outdated standards, and industrial in-box thinking.

Personal Experience

  1. What have you learned during your time working on EURECOMP?:

    If you surround yourself with like-minded people who share the same visions like you, your job is not only fulfilling but also a lot of fun. I also learned to fight for the European idea in discussions with pessimists and reactionary people. Finally, I learned to appreciate project meetings in Spain, Portugal, and Greece.

  2. How has this project influenced your professional development?:

    In fact, EuReComp has strongly influenced my professional development. After we have achieved the first promising results on composite repurposing, we realized that these results were very well received by the composite community, both in industry and in science. Meanwhile, I have initiated and started three follow-up projects, directly related to EuReComp results. A couple of other ideas are already created or currently in preparation. Based on that success, HTWK Leipzig has founded a new lab in 2024, the Composite Circularity Lab (CCL). Right now, eight scientists work on different topics of composite circularity. And the nucleus for all this was EuReComp.

Based on our early successes in EuReComp, HTWK Leipzig founded a new lab in 2024 — the Composite Circularity Lab — now home to eight scientists working on composite circularity.

Fun Facts

  1. What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

    First of all, I should try to organize a little more free time for me at all. Actually, I’m a semi-professional chess player. I’m doing this since I’m eight years old. So, I guess I could claim that I’m taking this quite seriously. I have not achieved master level but there is not much missing. It’s pretty rare, but I’ve already beaten grandmasters. Nowadays however, with limited free time in general, I’m already happy when I’m able to hold my level and can stop the unavoidable decline. Because spending time with my family and friends and “the good things in life” is also very tempting.

  2. Share a fun fact about yourself that your colleagues might not know:

    I don’t know if this is funny at all but 10-15 years ago I was invited to many meetings as the “bad cop”. Because I had this special talent of quickly identifying why things do not work or why certain ideas are really stupid. But nowadays, I often find myself being the most optimistic person in a room. Some old people recently told me usually this process is the other way around. I find this quite bizarre. And also a little bit funny.

Closing Thoughts

  1. Is there anything else you would like to share about your experience with the EURECOMP project?:

    I do research projects for more than 20 years now. It’s rather seldom to have a consortium like the EuReComp people. So readers from outside EuReComp, grab those people for your projects. They will push your ideas forward.