Bioeconomy

Valorization of biological materials - 12/01/2023

ValBio-Urban brings bioeconomy research to users

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.

Tübingen biotechnologist Lars Angenent is being awarded the Leibniz Prize by the German Research Foundation (DFG) in appreciation of his outstanding work in the field of environmental biotechnology, it was announced in Bonn on Thursday. The DFG said: “In view of climate change and the resulting need to develop a sustainable food, chemistry and energy economy, his work is highly relevant.”

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.

European Bioplastics (EUBP) begrüßt die von der Europäischen Kommission verabschiedeten Entwürfe für neue Verpackungs- und Biokunststoffvorschriften. „Wir begrüßen das erste umfassende politische Rahmenwerk der Kommission für innovative Biokunststoffe, das deren Potenzial für einen positiven Beitrag zur Umwelt anerkennt.

With insects to the circular economy - 30/11/2022

InBiRa: Insect biorefinery turns food leftovers into new products

Insect larvae can convert food leftovers and waste into secondary raw materials for technical products and cosmetics. Researchers are looking to establish an insect biorefinery for this purpose at the Fraunhofer IGB in Stuttgart. The InBiRa project is financed with a total of 3.8 million euros in EU and Baden-Württemberg state funding.

Chemical building blocks from plastic waste; Reducing the risk of falls using virtual orientation aids: Konstanz chemists Manuel Häußler and Lukas Odenwald as well as sport scientist Lorenz Assländer receive Baden-Württemberg prototype funding for their transfer projects "Waste2DCA" and "Augmented Balance".

Whether in drinking water, food or even in the air: plastic is a global problem - and the full extent of this pollution may go beyond of what we know yet. Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), together with partners from the Netherlands and Australia, have reviewed conventional assumptions for the transport of plastic in rivers.

The Carl Zeiss Foundation is funding the "DELIVER - Data-driven Engineering of Sustainable Living Materials" project at the University of Freiburg in its "CZS Wildcard" program. In the project, scientists from the Freiburg Clusters of Excellence CIBSS and livMatS will develop sustainable wood-based materials whose properties can be precisely controlled.

Dossier - 19/10/2022

More food sustainability: crucial for people and for the environment

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.

Basic chemicals, which are needed as raw materials for a wide range of products such as medicines and detergents, can currently only be produced with an enormously high input of energy and raw materials. In many cases, fossil fuels and raw materials are still used. The extraction of chemical substances alone requires high temperatures, expensive catalysts made of precious metals and, in some cases, environmentally harmful starting materials.

Büsnau biorefinery - 05/10/2022

KoalAplan: municipal wastewater as a source of recyclable materials

Our wastewater not only contains dirt and excretions, but is also rich in carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus, which can be recovered. A sewage plant can thus become a source of raw materials. In the KoalAplan project, a new type of biorefinery will be used to convert the carbon recovered from wastewater into sustainable products.

Sustainable nutrition - 05/09/2022

Insect pasta: eating healthily and improving the world at the same time

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.

Project BW2Pro - 29/08/2022

Biowaste to Products: biorefinery transforms biowaste into new products

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…

Lentil cultivation in a producers’ association - EIP-AGRI Rhizo-Linse project - 23/05/2022

From cultivation to market – lentils from the Swabian Alb

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.

The construction industry consumes large amounts of energy resources and produces tons of waste. At the Solar Decathlon Europe 21/22 university competition, students and researchers from KIT are eager to demonstrate that the building sector is already compatible with a functioning circular economy. The task of the interdisciplinary “RoofKIT” team is to convert previously unused roofs of buildings into usable spaces.

Mini-factories for producing bioplastics - 05/05/2022

Bacteria produce bioplastics: resource-saving and very environmentally friendly

Using living cells as mini-factories to produce plastic from nothing more than water, sunlight and carbon dioxide; plastic that is also 100 percent degradable – it sounds far-fetched but it actually works: researchers at the University of Tübingen have genetically engineered cyanobacteria so that they fill their cells to the brim with polyhydroxybutyrate. The researchers are now turning the idea into reality with the development of pilot plants.

pre-start-up company Wheyfinery - 13/04/2022

Acid whey as a valuable raw material for platform chemicals and more

There is not much you can do with acid whey, which is why several million litres of it are disposed of every year. This is both costly and not sustainable. However, researchers at Tübingen University have shown: acid whey can be used to produce precursors for biofuels, fine chemicals and antimicrobial livestock feed additives. They have set up the pre-start-up company Wheyfinery in an endeavour to make their scalable biorefinery concept…

The University of Stuttgart is contributing to innovations for climate protection as part of the EU project "Smart Circular Bridge". An old material is being rediscovered: flax has been with us for thousands of years in the form of clothing, sacks, and robust ship's ropes. Now the plant fibres are experiencing a renaissance and could become the building material of the future.

The Ministry of the Environment, Climate Protection and the Energy Sector is funding the KoalAplan project, which extends the functional scope of a wastewater treatment plant. The project, based in the Stuttgart district of Büsnau, aims at recovering raw materials from wastewater and is therefore making a positive contribution to climate neutrality, as the products obtained replace fossil raw materials and energy-intensive processes.

The Ministry for the Environment, Climate Protection and the Energy Sector is funding the new research project RoKKa which is used to prove the viability of recovering raw materials from wastewater. This adds a crucial function to the scope of a conventional sewage treatment plant. Together with the operators of the sewage treatment plants in Erbach and Neu-Ulm, the project partners demonstrate the positive contribution towards climate protection…

The annual highlight of the industry is the International Conference on Cellulose Fibres in Cologne (www.cellulose-fibres.eu), where the latest innovations were showcased last week: new cellulose fibre technologies for various feedstocks and a wide range of hygiene and textile products as well as alternatives to plastics and carbon fibre for lightweight constructions.

Protection against game damage - 13/01/2022

Sapling protectors made of domestic wood - simple but effective

Young forest plants need protecting against damage and as a result it’s often hard to miss the colourful plastic tree guard sleeves when out walking in forests. These tree guard sleeves are neither pleasing to the eye nor sustainable. Bernd Schairer UG from Albstadt has developed sapling protectors made of wood that contain no plastics, metals or chemicals, do not require removal and disposal, and are produced in a socially responsible way.

For the second time, the nova Institute for Ecology and Innovation is honouring outstanding scientific research that provides sustainable solutions for the cellulose fibre value chain as part of the "International Conference on Cellulose Fibres 2022". The DITF Denkendorf is one of the six nominees.

Renewable raw materials and the circular economy in the textile industry - 08/12/2021

Outdoor equipment made from cellulose, castor oil and coffee grounds - functional and durable

VAUDE develops outdoor gear made from natural or recycled materials that are harmless to people and the environment while protecting against the wind and rain. The company relies on renewable raw materials, biobased plastics and the circular economy.

The Cluster of Excellence IntCDC of the University of Stuttgart presents the "Maison Fibre" at the International Architecture Exhibition Venice. The full-scale inhabitable installation is made from robotically produced, fibrous building elements.