Mechanical Engineering: Manfred Hirschvogel Prize awarded to Steffen Blömeke

At the Mechanical Engineering Day on 9 May 2026, the Manfred Hirschvogel Prize for the best doctoral thesis of 2025 was awarded to Dr.-Ing. Steffen Blömeke. His doctoral thesis, entitled “Environmental Assessment and Engineering of Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Systems”, was completed at the Institute of Machine Tools and Manufacturing Technology under the supervision of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christoph Herrmann.

Awarded for the best doctoral thesis: Dr.-Ing. Steffen Blömeke (centre). Photo credits: Maik Reepschläger/fotodesign BRAUNSCHWEIG

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are a key component of electromobility, but they are associated with significant economic and environmental challenges. Evaluating a LIB recycling system capable of substantially reducing material-related emissions in LIB production has so far been a challenge. As part of the doctoral thesis, a systematic approach to the environmental assessment and design of LIB recycling systems was developed for this purpose. This approach combines quantitative sustainability assessment with engineering modelling of the recycling processes, thereby capturing the complexity of dynamic, long-term recycling systems from an integrated product, process and market perspective and making them amenable to design.

With this award, the Frank Hirschvogel Foundation honours outstanding young researchers in mechanical engineering at all TU9 universities. It has now been awarded for the eleventh time at TU Braunschweig.