Bioeconomy

Article - 13/09/2010

Stuttgart-based ZSW turns wood and electricity into gas

It is rather reassuring to know that fossil energy carriers can be replaced by renewable ones. However, the difficulties are always in the details. For example with regard to the storage capacity of electricity produced with sun and wind; or with regard to the use of biomass to produce natural gas substitutes. The Stuttgart-based Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW) has a number of solutions up its sleeve for…

Press release - 23/08/2010

University of Stuttgart participates in EU project: Parameters that help advance biogas technologies in Europe

There is a binding EU-wide target to source 20 per cent of each country’s energy needs, as stipulated in the Kyoto Protocol, from renewable sources by 2020. The production of biogas is one promising key technology that could lead to this target being reached. But which technologies, measures and conditions are needed to advance biogas technology in Europe? The EU research project SEBE (Sustainable and Innovative European Biogas Environment) is…

Article - 26/07/2010

University of Hohenheim and AVAT: innovative method for the production of biogas

Partners from industry and research have joined forces to develop an innovative method for the production of biogas. In contrast to standard methods, the chemical degradation processes will in future take place in different tanks rather than in just one. The developers hope that the separation of the processes will expedite the degradation processes, improve the quality of the individual degradation products, and enable their broad applications.…

Article - 05/07/2010

ASA Spezialenzyme GmbH – more biogas thanks to optimised enzymes

ASA Spezialenzyme GmbH offers solutions for a broad range of applications – enzymes for quicker biogas production, enzymes for rust removal or enzymes for the production of new biopolymers in cars. The company has been coming up with innovative ideas for the biotechnology market ever since it was established in 1991.

Dossier - 03/05/2010

Biorefinery concepts are close to implementation

Coal crude oil whats next? The preparations for switching from crude oil to other resources for the production of fuels and petrochemical products are underway. Crude oil and also gas reserves are in irrevocable decline. Pessimists believe that peak oil production has already been reached and optimists believe that this peak will be reached in 2020. Crude oil is not only our most important source of energy production but it is also an important…

Article - 03/05/2010

Bioliq and the attraction of decentralised processes

There is a steady stream of people both Germans and foreigners going in and out of Eckhard Dinjus laboratory at the Institute of Technical Chemistry at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology KIT. The 66-year-old chemist developed the bioliq method that is set to become an export hit due to its decentralised-centralised approach. Many years before the pilot plant started operating people from near and far including China had expressed their…

Press release - 25/03/2010

Pure biogas in three steps: University of Hohenheim develops new type of biogas plant

Higher methane level, shorter process times, more flexible products: researchers from the University of Hohenheim are planning to establish a three-tier pilot plant over the next three years that is able to produce all this. In the long term, this will contribute to a reduction in the energy required to produce biogas relative to the energy currently required to produce natural gas and it will also enable biogas to be supplied via existing gas…

Press release - 21/01/2010

Driving cars with biogas produced from biological waste

The ETAMAX research project brings together partners from research, the energy sector and industry and is aimed at using a combined, modular process to produce biogas from low-lignocellulosic waste such as supermarket waste and micro-algal biomass, at the same time as closing all substance cycles. The regenerative biomethane will be used to fuel a small fleet of gas-driven vehicles.

Article - 17/08/2009

The source of biomass – young people experience this agricultural energy source

A biomass action day was recently organised at the Unterer Lindenhof experimental station in order to show schoolchildren a number of features of different agricultural products that fuel that is made from rape seed is capable of taking them from Egypt to South Africa that the use of wood for heating houses is very ecological and that various plant oils can taste very differently. This action day was made possible thanks to the Hohenheim…

Press release - 05/08/2009

University of Hohenheim to supply optimised biogas facilities to Tanzania

Several years ago, development workers attempted to supply rural households in the Kagera region of Tanzania with biogas. However, the project failed because the technology was not fully developed and was not properly adapted to the regional conditions. Now, the association “Engineers Without Borders” is setting out to correct past mistakes, together with students from the University of Hohenheim.

Article - 11/05/2009

Biopolymers to improve drinking water quality

In the long run, biopolymers will find their way into industry and everyday life; they are the polymers of the future. The Institute for Sanitary Engineering, Water Quality and Solid Waste Management at the University of Stuttgart offers applications of biopolymers for the preparation of water as well as a new recycling strategy.

Press release - 14/01/2009

Hunters of lost treasures

On 1st December 2008 Prof. Dr. Karl Schmid the first person to hold the F.W. Schnell Foundations endowed professorship for crop biodiversity and breeding informatics started the ball rolling on a unique European-wide project. Schmid and his colleagues are searching gigantic databases in which genetic analyses and plant descriptions are stored for hidden treasures.

The report Future Bioenergy and Sustainable Land Use is the first integrated study of bioenergy to explore the issue in the context of global environmental and development policy. It shows that the global sustainable potential for producing energy from biomass is significant.

Biogas experts at the University of Hohenheim believe that up to 50 per cent more energy can be achieved per hectare of cultivated energy crops. The researchers are hoping that Germanys first biogas research plant will provide them with new insights.

The BioRegio STERN Management GmbH and the Wirtschaftsförderung Region Stuttgart GmbH sent out invitations to the 7th Brüssels Background entitled Bio-energy Out of research. Into practice. Experts presented and discussed the latest figures and information on the subject of bio-energy.

Article - 16/02/2008

Bioenergy project for the reduction of greenhouse gases

The German EnBW AG and the University of Hohenheim will investigate the viability of sustainable of jatropha plants with the overall goal of reducing greenhouse gases. A contract for this particular land use has recently been signed.