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Lentil cultivation in a producers’ association - EIP-AGRI Rhizo-Linse project - 23/05/2022
Complicated cultivation, fluctuating yields and complex cleaning: Leisa – as lentils are called in Swabian – are demanding. So to produce lentils economically, 130 farmers in the Swabian Alb have joined forces and set up the organic producers’ association Alb-Leisa. Their lentil harvests are processed and marketed by a company called Lauteracher Alb-Feld-Früchte.
https://www.biooekonomie-bw.de/en/articles/news/cultivation-market-lentils-swabian-alb
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Lentil cleaning - EIP-AGRI Rhizo-Linse project - 26/04/2022
The Altdorf mill, just under 7 km south of the city of Böblingen, has operated lentil cleaning facilities since 2019, the year that the Sessler mill in Renningen, 20 km further north, ceased all operations including lentil cleaning. After receiving a number of enquiries from farmers and local mills, brothers Karl and Jörg Ruthardt took a chance and launched a lentil cleaning operation in addition to their mill and farm shop business.
https://www.biooekonomie-bw.de/en/articles/news/lentil-cleaning-altdorf-mill
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Press release - 02/02/2022
fischertechnik has set a new milestone with the Animal Friends construction kit, as the building blocks and packaging are largely made of renewable resources and the models depict playful animals in new colours. The company is thereby taking another major step towards sustainability. The bio-based building set recently won the Toy Award, one of the most prestigious awards in the industry.
https://www.biooekonomie-bw.de/en/articles/pm/animal-friends-aus-nachwachsenden-rohstoffen
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Lentil cultivation and cleaning on the farm - EIP-AGRI Rhizo-Linse project - 16/03/2022
Lentils are among the oldest crop plants in Central European agriculture and were once a popular food in ancient Egypt, Persia and Mesopotamia. The legume was widespread in Germany until the mid-20th century, but has since disappeared completely from farmers’ fields. Over the past decade, lentils have reappeared as a crop grown locally and are cultivated in harmony with nature.
https://www.biooekonomie-bw.de/en/articles/news/lentils-return-heckengaeu-region
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Filament winding technology for sustainable construction - 06/04/2022
One of the greatest challenges in the construction industry is the transition to more environmentally friendly and resource-saving buildings. Researchers at the University of Stuttgart are combining state-of-the-art robotic filament winding technologies with ancient local crops to produce stable and sustainable lightweight structures from flax fibres.
https://www.biooekonomie-bw.de/en/articles/news/robotic-building-natural-fibres
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Project BW2Pro - 29/08/2022
In 2020, Germany’s population collected over 5 million tonnes of biowaste. Most of this was composted, and some was fermented into biogas. Scientists in Baden-Württemberg think there's room for more. Within the project ‘Biowaste to Products’ (BW2Pro) they want to transform biowaste into new products in a biorefinery. The idea is to produce biodegradable plant pots, mulch material, fertilisers, enzymes and biobased plastics in addition to…
https://www.biooekonomie-bw.de/en/articles/news/biowaste-products-biorefinery-transforms-biowaste-new-products
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Sustainable nutrition - 05/09/2022
Insects on the dinner plate? Some people instantly dismiss the idea. Wrongly so, because in terms of animal welfare, ecological footprint and healthy nutrition, insect foods are much better than all other animal foods and are produced in a more controlled way. The fact that they can also taste really good is proven by the start-up Beneto Foods from Albstadt, which has developed protein-rich pasta in various flavours using cricket flour.
https://www.biooekonomie-bw.de/en/articles/news/insect-pasta-eating-healthily-and-improving-world-same-time
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Dossier - 19/10/2022
Strawberries in winter and imported apples? You can find them in most supermarkets. This is not sustainable. Looking to the future, the way we eat needs to change in many mundane ways – and this needs to happen quickly so that future generations will also be able to enjoy a planet that is worth living on. In Baden-Württemberg, alternative nutrition concepts are being worked at pace. Many creative ideas and innovative products already exist.
https://www.biooekonomie-bw.de/en/articles/dossiers/more-food-sustainability-crucial-people-and-environment
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Festo’s high-tech bioreactor - 10/11/2022
In future, algae could be used to produce practically everything that still requires petroleum, including plastics, fuels, medicines and food. Algae are also climate savers par excellence, because they bind ten times more CO2 than terrestrial plants. Festo, a company based in Esslingen, Germany, has developed a high-tech bioreactor that can be used to automatically cultivate the small green biofactories - and that do so a hundred times more…
https://www.biooekonomie-bw.de/en/articles/news/valuable-materials-all-kinds-produced-automatically-living-cells
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Start-up 'Innovation Matters' - 19/12/2022
Saffron is one of the most expensive spices in the world, because picking it involves a complex manual process. This treasure therefore comes to us mostly from countries such as Iran with poor working conditions and low wages. A start-up company called Innovation Matters from Baden-Württemberg is now developing a robot-assisted, automated process that will make saffron cultivation attractive in Germany as well as ecological and fair.
https://www.biooekonomie-bw.de/en/articles/news/saffron-cultivation-germany-sustainable-support-robots
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Vaccination for plants - 23/01/2023
Climate change creates stress. This provides an opportunity for pests to exploit plant weaknesses and reproduce. For the infested plant, this can be catastrophic and often fatal. But instead of continuing to protect harvest yields with toxic substances as before, the transnational DialogProTec project is now taking a completely new approach: researchers want to intervene in the communication between plants and pests to keep them healthy.
https://www.biooekonomie-bw.de/en/articles/news/dialogue-instead-chemical-maze-new-strategy-sustainable-crop-protection
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Valorization of biological materials - 12/01/2023
Reducing carbon dioxide emissions and the capture and utilization of CO2 are important steps towards achieving a climate-neutral and sustainable economy. Accordingly, as part of the ValBio-Urban research project, an interdisciplinary team from the University of Stuttgart is developing bioeconomic approaches to solutions that will be implemented with companies from Baden-Württemberg.
https://www.biooekonomie-bw.de/en/articles/news/valbio-urban-brings-bioeconomy-research-users
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Synergistic effects with microalgae and purple bacteria - 03/02/2023
A biorefinery that uses industrial wastewater and residual material streams is being built in Rheinfelden (Baden). It will have two interlinking bioreactors and will synthesize biohydrogen as well as organic basic materials such as carotenoids and proteins. SmartBioH2-BW is a pilot project run by the Urban and Industrial Biorefineries initiative and funded by the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment, Climate Protection and Energy Sector.
https://www.biooekonomie-bw.de/en/articles/news/working-towards-hydrogen-economy-wastewater-biorefinery-smartbioh2-bw-project
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Press release - 08/12/2022
The German Research Foundation (DFG) has awarded the 2023 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize to Prof. Achim Menges, head of the Institute for Computational Design and Construction at the University of Stuttgart. The award, which is endowed with EUR 2.5 million, is considered by many the most important research prize in Germany.
https://www.biooekonomie-bw.de/en/articles/pm/leibniz-preis-fuer-prof-achim-menges
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Press release - 15/12/2022
The launch of the global Nature Positive Universities initiative was announced at the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 15), held in Montreal, Canada, in December 2022. The University of Konstanz is one of more than one hundred universities from all five continents joining the initiative. The common goal is to address the university's own impact on nature and to identify and implement effective measures to halt and reverse the loss of…
https://www.biooekonomie-bw.de/en/articles/pm/verantwortung-uebernehmen-zum-schutz-der-biodiversitaet
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Think Tank FYI: Agriculture 5.0 - 16/02/2023
Climate protection, agriculture and biodiversity are closely intertwined. Agriculture 5.0 provides positive guidance, as the Offenburg University of Applied Sciences has demonstrated: agrophotovoltaics (or agrivoltaics), which is currently in vogue in Germany, can be used to generate solar power on high-yield fields. Biomass strips and biochar remove CO2 from the atmosphere. All this improves soil quality and promotes biodiversity.
https://www.biooekonomie-bw.de/en/articles/news/agriculture-50-fighting-climate-crisis-agrophotovoltaics-and-biochar
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Press release - 30/03/2023
Composite materials provide stability in aircraft parts, sports equipment, and everyday household items. However, most of these materials have a poor carbon footprint and are not naturally degradable. A more sustainable alternative has been developed by a team from the University of Stuttgart. This completely bio-based composite material is made of flax fibers and the biopolymer chitosan.
https://www.biooekonomie-bw.de/en/articles/pm/green-composite-material-made-flax-and-chitosan
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Diatoms as a biorefinery - 05/05/2023
Renewable raw materials that can be used as alternatives to fossil resources already exist. However, to turn them into everyday products, plant oils and other renewable raw materials not only have to be extracted, but often have to undergo complex chemical processing. Researchers at the University of Konstanz have now converted microalgae cells into tiny refineries to produce and upgrade raw materials, creating a supply of sustainable chemicals.
https://www.biooekonomie-bw.de/en/articles/news/microalgae-sustainable-chemical-production-mini-factory
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3D-Thermocell project - 17/05/2023
Replacing plastic – for example in packaging – is not that easy but nevertheless urgently needed. In the 3D-Thermocell project, researchers at DHBW Karlsruhe are currently developing new plastic substitute products made of thermoformable paper as a renewable resource, which should be cheap and light and easy to dispose of along with waste paper. The characterisation and application of demonstration models will start soon.
https://www.biooekonomie-bw.de/en/articles/paper-instead-plastic-sustainable-packaging-good-conscience
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Press release - 30/08/2023
Rising sea levels due to climate change and artificial irrigation cause soil salinity to increase. This has a negative impact on agriculture, including viticulture. The plants die, yields decrease. Researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have therefore studied a wild grapevine of higher salt tolerance. Their goal is to identify the genetic factors that make the grapevine resilient.
https://www.biooekonomie-bw.de/en/articles/pm/soil-salinity-wild-grapevine-defends-itself
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The AlbLavendel project - 20/11/2023
Blue-violet, fragrant fields like those in Provence may soon become a common sight in the Swabian Alb. As part of the AlbLavendel project, the University of Hohenheim along with the company naturamus GmbH and the German Institutes of Textile and Fibre Research Denkendorf has started to investigate the cultivation of lavender, the production of essential oils and the use of distillation residues for producing textile fibres in the local region.
https://www.biooekonomie-bw.de/en/articles/news/swabian-lavender-cultivation-aesthetic-and-sustainable
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Wasser 3.0: #detect|remove|reuse - 31/10/2023
We all pollute our water with things we use in our everyday lives. In the process, microplastics and micropollutants accumulate in sometimes significant quantities and are difficult to remove. This has increasingly devastating consequences for our health and the environment. Wasser 3.0, a non-profit start-up from Karlsruhe, has declared war on this problem by developing a customisable process to detect, remove and even recycle these pollutants.
https://www.biooekonomie-bw.de/en/articles/news/how-sustainably-remove-and-recycle-microplastics-water
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Climate-neutral wastewater treatment plants thanks to patented real-time analytics - 08/11/2023
The wastewater industry is responsible for global greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those of global aviation. The start-up Variolytics has found a way to significantly reduce greenhouse gases in wastewater treatment plants using real-time analytics. The patented sensor technology and AI-supported process optimisation offer multiple benefits: in addition to reducing nitrous oxide, the system helps to reduce energy costs and resources.
https://www.biooekonomie-bw.de/en/articles/news/using-ai-reduce-greenhouse-gases-wastewater-companies
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Press release - 02/11/2023
The Sustainability Innovation Campus (ICN) initiated by the University of Freiburg and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), which will begin its work in January 2024, has announced a two-year funding programme for start-up projects. Scientists from the University of Freiburg, KIT and cooperating universities and research institutions are invited to submit their project outlines by 30 November 2023.
https://www.biooekonomie-bw.de/en/articles/pm/sustainability-innovation-campus
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Sustainable binder alternative - 18/12/2023
Plastic is all around us; and unfortunately, it is not going away any time soon. The search for more sustainable solutions is fully underway. However, binders that degrade only with difficulty or not at all are still used to bond natural materials such as wood and straw - not yet truly environmentally friendly. Fraunhofer researchers are working on an insect-inspired wood binder that makes bonded wood products both resistant and biodegradable.
https://www.biooekonomie-bw.de/en/articles/news/copied-insects-new-biological-wood-binder-under-development
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urban BioEconomyLab - 07/12/2023
Baden-Württemberg is leading the way in the transition to a climate-neutral and sustainable economy. One of the projects undertaken is the Fraunhofer IGB’s "urban BioEconomyLab" project which aims to develop a transformation model and living laboratory to find bioeconomic solutions for the sustainable design of cities and municipal industry. What is new is that the IGB takes a systemic approach, focusing on biobased and circular value…
https://www.biooekonomie-bw.de/en/articles/news/city-living-laboratory-bioeconomic-sustainable-economic-area
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Alternative construction materials: mycelium-based materials - 20/12/2023
Most of us see fungi as just food - and possibly pathogens. This is a mistake, because these amazing organisms are capable of much more: they grow on plant residues of all kinds, forming a dense and interconnected structure as they spread. The resulting material can be moulded into desired shapes and be turned into new sustainable and economically attractive products such as leather and polystyrene substitutes or building materials.
https://www.biooekonomie-bw.de/en/articles/news/using-fungi-create-sustainable-and-economical-mycelium-based-materials
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