Bioeconomy

Biobased building materials - 14/01/2021

Chitin for the development of sustainable materials for use in the construction and other industries

Pliable and robust, light and stable - it sounds like an ideal material for the construction and many other industries. A team of researchers at the University of Stuttgart is researching what purposes the naturally good properties of chitin can serve.

As healthy and tasty as mushrooms might be, they are good for much more than just the dinner plate. The Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT has now teamed up with the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics IBP to investigate the use of fungus-based materials for the fabrication of eco-friendly sound absorbers.

The wastewater treatment plant is turned into a vegetable farm, bio-based substances recovered from waste are being utilized to prevent oxidative spoilage in food packaging or provide environmentally-friendly and safe water-repellent coatings on functional textiles. In the EVOBIO project coordinated by Fraunhofer IGB, 19 Fraunhofer Institutes are working on solutions for a sustainable economy.

Only two and a half months after its launch, the EU bioecocomy venture capital fund ECBF has doubled the volume of its first closing.