One could say that Achim Kampker faces a special borderline experience every day. In the German-Dutch business park Avantis between Aachen and Heerlen, the chair holder of the RWTH Aachen works on his visions of a world in which economy and ecology are not contradictory.
“We have to do something against the mood of doom that is widespread in many places,” says the 47-year-old professor. To this end, Kampker founded the association “Engineers Save the Earth” in 2019, which now has around 100 members. Many of them are practicing or still studying engineers, for example in the environmental sector, water treatment and mechanical engineering. Others come from the administration, are start-up entrepreneurs, teachers or retirees.
There is a lot of discussion going on at the moment, says Kampker: about climate change, environmental pollution and the fact that something needs to change. But Kampker wants to act. Such as with the small electric transporter “Streetscooter”, which Deutsche Post/DHL can use to deliver parcels locally in the cities CO₂-free. As its co-inventor, Kampker became known beyond the university scene from 2010. Thousands of e-mobiles are in use for the postal service throughout Germany. The company founded in Aachen for the development of the vehicle was later bought by the post office and managed by Kampker for a few more years.
Since the end of his leave of absence from RWTH Aachen University, the scientist, who comes from the Lower Rhine region, has again held the chair “Production Engineering of E-Mobility Components” (PEM), which was founded in 2014 and deals with the production of components for e-mobility. The headquarters of the institute and the company it founded, “PEM Motion”, have been on Avantis for two years.
Kampker’s association, meanwhile, is involved in a whole series of sustainable projects. The most ambitious is the construction of a “Humanotops” – a city that draws all the resources it needs from its own environment. It will initially be created on a small scale on Avantis. In the “Humanotop” there, energy, water, food and mobility and other necessary infrastructure, including the buildings and vegetation, are to be obtained and operated from the company’s own resources.
“We all have to do our part to save the world,” says the practicing Catholic and father of five. It is also about securing Germany as a business location. “It is important to reconcile ecology and economy.” Environmental and climate protection are a marathon task. “But we don’t have much time left – and the others in the world are not waiting for us.”
Kampker was able to win the “Germany – Land of Ideas” initiative founded by the federal government and industry as a partner for his association. “We need a spirit of optimism in our country,” says the professor, who resides with his chair and the consulting firm in a building that is half on the German and half on the Dutch side. Together with “Land of Ideas”, work is now being done to advance the planned campaigns of the association he founded. The breeding of larvae of so-called soldier flies has just started.
The company “Hermetia Tech”, which was spun off from Kampker’s chair, is working on processing the larvae into lubricants that could replace palm oil. The company could also help to prevent 88 million tons of food being wasted across the EU every year: “The insect larvae are able to recover nutrients from leftover food,” says Managing Director Marius Wenning, who did his doctorate at RWTH Aachen University. Insect proteins could replace soy and fish meal as animal feed. If Kampker has his way, what is created at Avantis could become an “export hit” and serve as a model for other regions.
A lot is still being planned at Avantis – but a lot has already been implemented. Since last summer, Europe’s most modern independent test center for drive batteries in electric vehicles has been located there. The TÜV Rheinland laboratory, which was built at a cost of around 24 million euros, is one of the largest of its kind. Kampker also acts as a joint venture partner there. “Our goal is to work at our new location in Heerlen-Aachen to help make electromobility safe and at the same time support innovations,” said Michael Fübi, CEO of TÜV Rheinland AG, at the opening.
Avantis now also has an electricity storage facility with a capacity of one megawatt – powered by discarded electric car batteries. They are no longer powerful enough for use in vehicles, but together they can function as a stationary energy supplier for a good eight years. A solar field is to be built right next to the storage facility in order to make Avantis independent of supplied energy as soon as possible.
“We have to start the conversion in the cities, not just on the green field,” says Kampker, who is already in talks with real estate managers. But he couldn’t name names yet. The “Ducktrain” is also aimed at solutions for the city, an automated light electric vehicle for delivering goods over the so-called last mile to the end customer. If necessary, this mobile should move as a column, similar to a family of ducks. It was also developed on Avantis, where more than 30 companies are already based, by a spin-off from the PEM chair.
In his drive projects, Kampker always proceeds in a similar way as he did with the “Streetscooter”. “It’s all about mobility, which I really need.” It could be a simple pedelec with a battery or an e-car with a moderate range for the city.
He and his team have just presented a paper with “strategies for achieving emissions targets in the commercial vehicle sector”. Among other things, it compares the practicality and efficiency of different types of electric drives – from traction batteries and battery-assisted truck trailers to fuel cells, overhead lines and synthetic fuels. There is simply no one-size-fits-all solution for all commercial vehicles, the machine builder sums up: “Even within individual weight classes, the requirements sometimes differ so greatly that here too only a combination of the various technologies can be considered.” However, their clever interaction could result in effective decarbonization, for example of freight traffic.
