TUM alumnus Andreas Sichert in an interview.

Together with fellow TUM students, Dr. Andreas Sichert founded the company Orcan Energy AG, which develops small quasi-power plants for sustainable electricity generation (Image: Orcan Energy AG).

Alumni in sustainability

Entrepreneur Andreas Sichert

“I Wanted to Understand What Was Written on the Chalk Board”

15. Mar 2018

Reading time Min.

Firefighter, race driver, farmer? Dr. Andreas Sichert has had many life dreams. He chose Physics because he was interested in how things work. Today, with his company Orcan Energy, he is taking care of sustainable power generation and a better world.

Power and how to generate it is a hot topic for both economy and politics. Resources are scarce, the demand is huge. The question how energy can be generated in a way that goes easy on resources and has maximum output has preoccupied people for a long time. “I was interested in the topic of energy as early as in my studies”, TUM Alumni Dr. Andreas Sichert tells us. Together with the Mechanical Engineering students Andreas Schuster and Richard Aumann, he developed a groundbreaking concept, which might enable him to make a bigger contribution to the world than in the numerous other jobs he had envisioned for his life.

The ORC-Module generates electric power even from relatively small quantities of waste heat, the leftover thermic energy which incurs from many industrial processes, generating energy, and in transportation. The efficiency PACK by Orcan Energy is a small power plant, which can produce up to 100 kilowatt of electricity and thus covers the annual power consumption of around 230 households. Obviously this sustainable solution has attracted a lot of attention and bestowed numerous clients and awards on the TUM start-up, e.g. the TUM Presidential Entrepreneurship Award.

Innovation especially grows from an interdisciplinary interface.

Andreas Sichert
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When he was a child, he wanted to become pretty much everything at some point: „firefighter, farmer, race driver or follow in my parent’s footsteps and leading our family butchery into the next generation”, he tells us. But he has also always been interested in why and how things work. “Maths was too theoretical for me and I wasn’t sure if I was skilled enough for Mechanical Engineering.” Studying Physics turned out to be the perfect way to not just “combine curiosity and good job prospects”, but to also move between technology and business: “My Physics degree has taught me very good mathematical and technical understanding, which allows me to bridge the worlds of technology and business. Innovation especially grows from this interdisciplinary interface: which technological possibilities are there and which possibilities are economically viable – and implemented how?”

THE UNIVERSITY AS A SPECIAL PLACE

Today, he and his team are contributing to a better world: instead of being lost, the waste heat from various sectors is being used for new energy – that is environmentalism in its purest form! The respect for our word’s working order and its preservation has been a constant in Andreas Sichert’s life. Wide-eyed he commenced his studies, he recounts: “Everything was so new, so big – this brand-new world that had opened up to me.” And he remembers the wistfulness with which he left university life: “Even though you also work towards finishing your university time by earning your diploma or doctorate degree, I remember well that the last days, that is saying goodbye to the academic world, were filled with a lot of wistfulness about leaving this special place.” But ultimately, by developing alternative and efficient methods to generate energy, he remains true to his academic nature.

The video on the TUM Presidential Entrepreneurship Award 2016 can be found in the TUM Youtube channel.

Portrait picture of TUM alumnus Andreas Sichert.

Dr. Andreas Sichert

Diploma in Physics 2006, Doctorate 2010

Having finished his studies and Doctorate, Andreas Sichert founded Orcan Energy AG together with Richard Aumann and Dr.-Ing. Andreas Schuster. Their ORC-Modules turn waste heat from the industry and transportation sectors into usable energy, which not only stands for the preservation of resources but has also brought them numerous awards. In 2016, for example, they received the TUM Presidential Entrepreneurship Award and were listed amongst the TOP 100-Innovators in Germany.