ZFB Project-Management

Development of customer-specific solutions – from conception to plant engineering 

About us

ZFB Project-ManagementZFB Project-Management GmbH (ZFB-PM) was founded in 2001 as affiliated company of the ZFB ZENTRUM FÜR BUCHERHALTUNG GmbH (ZFB), which was outsourced from the book conservation center of the German National Library in 1997. The focus of activities includes the development of innovative processes, plants and special machinery for the conservation treatment of mobile Cultural Heritage, especially paper based documents. ZFB Project-Management is your specialized partner for the development, construction, manufacturing, commissioning and process optimization of customized plants for freeze-drying and chemical treatments of books, followed by a gently vacuum drying. To provide sustainable treatments, a high percentage of the used solvents are recovered and recycled.

Since 2003 until 2015, three independent plants for freeze- and vacuum drying of books, archive materials and other types of mobile cultural heritage have been installed at the shared location of ZFB and ZFB-PM in Leipzig. ZFB-PM has optimized those plants over years for a high performance with a possibly low energy consumption to enable an economic operation in the high-competitive conservation market. In the last decades for instance, harmed and endangered books after the fire at the Herzogin Anna Amalia library, the collapse of the Collogne City Archive or after several local flood catastrophes have been saved by a treatment in the in-house optimized freeze-drying process.

From 2004 to 2012, ZFB-PM developed and commissioned a novel industrial mass deacidification process for books and archive documents – the ZFB:2 process. Since 2012, the ZFB:2 plant with integrated vacuum drying and solvent recycling is successfully in operation and has by now after capacity expansions become the world’s largest mass deacidification plant for the treatment of archive documents and books which are endangered by acidic catalyzed degradation processes.

Furthermore, the portfolio of ZFB-PM includes the chemical development, process-engineering and production of sub-micro-dispersions, which can be used as e. g. deacidification agent (impregnation) or for the production of technical ceramics (ferrits).

In the past years, beyond that, we adressed microwave-based drying processes and have experiences in the construction and production of appropriate plants.

A further current focus is nanotechnology, especially the plant development for the production of nanocellulose (microfribrillated cellulose).  

Services

We develop customer-specific technologies for the conservation and restoration of paper, archive materials and other mobile Cultural Heritage objects. Our customers will also benefit from our experiences in the development of drying processes, microwave tehcnologies and nanotechnologies.

Our Services for you:
Consulting and project management
Consulting and project management
Chemical development
Chemical development
Process engineering
Process engineering
Construction and plant production
Construction and plant production

Consulting and project management

We provide technological, scientific-based consulting and qualified project management.
  • collective development of a successful solution strategy
  • project concept, suitable for your individual needs
  • process optimization
  • fast project provision
  • successful project completion

Chemical development and process engineering 

Chemical development and process engineering 
We develop for you:
  • novel composites, based on nanodispesions and nanocellulose
  • innovative methods for fiber-, paper- and material-analytics
  • sub-micro-dispersions, e. g. for technical ceramics (ferrites)
  • novel solutions in thermal process engineering
  • optimized drying and heating processes in respect to quality and efficiency goals
  • industrial microwave applications

Construction, special machinery, plants

We create construction documents and deliver machinery and plants, directly coordinated to your individual requirements.
Paper splitting plant

Paper splitting plant

One of our focal points are plants for the preservation and restoration of paper documents, e. g.:

  • mass deacidification plants for your paper documents
  • freeze-drying plants for the treatment of water and mould damages
  • other drying plants (vacuum and microwave drying
  • machinery for active paper restoration processes (paper stabilizing techniques, plan smoothing plants, book cover treatment etc.)

Beyond that, we also process development tasks in further fields of technology, like:

  • applied microwave technologies
  • nanotechnologies (nanodispersions, nanocellulose)

Of course, our services include the machine assembly, commissioning and the training of your employees. Subsequently, we provide a fully After-Sales-Service with technical support, maintenance and delivery of consumable supplies.

News from our R&D department


Current research projects

Research project HOMIVAT – funded by the German Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung

Development of a semiconductor-based microwave vacuum dryer

HOMIVAT is funded by the KMU-innovative program and aims for the development of a combined microwave-vacuum drying process for food industries. The novel drying process shall be applied without rotating drums like the current state of the art and will work with an optimized energy input, specially matched to the specific drying course. HOMIVAT moves microwaves – not the drying goods.
At the end of the project, a functional demonstrator at technical scale shall be available. The process can be used to gently dry sensitive foods like fruits, mushrooms or herbs with high quality.
The project has been processed since 01.01.2018 in cooperation with AFORMA GmbH and AFT microwave GmbH. 

funded by BMBF

Research project Pomace drying – funded by the German Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie

Pomace Drying with microwaves

Pomace is a by-product of the processing of fresh fruit and results when the fruits are grounted to mash. The resulting juice will be processed further but the remaining valuable pomace is actually used as animal feed. Today only about 10% of the resulting pomace amounts are dried and used for different products (additive in medical products, tea, fruit bars). It is well known, that pomace usually contains more valuable active agents than the actual juice. Classic drying processes are very time-consuming (10 hours or more) and expensive and even worse: they destroy a large percentage of precious vitamins and active agents.
The project aimed for the development of a highly efficient microwave-based drying process which allows drying times of up to one hour to create a bio-material of high value, e. g. for food industries.
The project has been processed since 01.01.2020 in cooperation with TESOMA GmbH, IfU GmbH – Privates Institut für Umweltanalysen and Naturmittel Biller. 

funded by BMWi   funded by ZIM

Research project CLEANculture – funded by the European Union

Masscleaning process for polluted and biological contaminated written cultural heritage

The contamination of paper-based cultural heritage objects with different substances like mould, dust, dirt, soot, pesticids or other pollutants poses a high risk for collection objects as well as for the health and wellbeing of employees and users of many libraries and archives. As the current state of the art, manual dry cleaning is used to remove superficial substances with different mechanical tools.

The aim of the project was the development of a novel mass treatment process for the cleaning of paper-based cultral heritage objects, to be provided as an alternative to the manual dry cleaning process. This project initially focussed on the removal of superficial particles like mould, dust, dirt and soot. A non-aqueous process for the treatment of bound books was to be developed.

The internal development project has been processed since 15.12.2021.  

Gefördert durch die Europäische Union

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