Bioeconomy News

The world's first tampon made from seaweed from Berlin start-up Vyld has passed the certification hurdle and has recently started to make its way into the country's first sanitary facilities.

In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, large areas of moorland are to be rewetted by 2027 and new options for utilising paludiculture tested.

Insect biotechnology in Giessen is getting a boost: the Fraunhofer IME has announced that the start-up Endosolutions is to set up at the research centre and breed insects on a large scale.

In the EU project BioFibreLoop, researchers are developing textile patterns and coatings made from renewable and recyclable materials - also for outdoor clothing.

The BMBF-funded junior research group TRABBI has used artificial intelligence (AI) to create a global overview of over 5.6 million bioeconomy-related patents for bio-based products, services and processes.

Pine cones served researchers from Stuttgart and Freiburg as a model for a new bio-based shading system for building facades that adapts itself to the weather and is energy self-sufficient.

In the joint research project ‘Bioshoreline’, researchers have developed filters made of biodegradable geotextiles to protect river banks without negatively impacting ecosystems in the future.

The Berlin-based food tech start-up Formo is receiving 35 million euros from the European Investment Bank (EIB) for the further development of its technology for the microbial production of animal-free dairy products.

In the H2Wood – BlackForest project, Fraunhofer researchers and partners produced biohydrogen using bacteria and microalgae and obtained carbon-based by-products such as lignin and starch.

Researchers in Jena have been able to clarify how the soil fungus Mortierella alpina naturally protects plants from predators and could thus make agriculture more sustainable.

At the 17th Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA) in Berlin, agricultural and food policy experts will be looking for solutions on how to make the bioeconomy sustainable in order to secure the world's food supply and combat climate crises.

Fraunhofer researchers provide evidence that plants from paludiculture are also suitable for the production of packaging and can therefore replace wood as a raw material for paper production.

Bioprocess engineers at TU Berlin are showing how fish farming in aquacultures can become more sustainable. Omega-3 fatty acids for fish feed were obtained from plant residues and with the help of bacteria and algae, which can replace fishmeal and fish oil.

In the TOPKO project, researchers at Oldenburg University of Applied Sciences want to develop biochar and hydrochar from agricultural residues such as green waste and manure in order to replace peat in horticulture.

With the help of hydrothermal humification, researchers from the Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy in Potsdam have succeeded in artificially producing humic substances, which are important for soil health, and making them usable as fertiliser for agriculture.

After three years of research, the ‘zirkulierBAR’ project shows that it is technically feasible and ecologically sensible to process human excrement as fertiliser for agriculture. The results have now been published in a handbook.

Fraunhofer researchers from Freising are developing a food foam based on legumes to replace traditional egg whites from hens' eggs in baked goods.

Jena researchers reveal how well tiny green algae can adapt to their environment – without interfering with their genetic material. The observations from the study could benefit biotechnology.

The Munich-based food tech start-up Planet A Foods has received 30 million US dollars in a Series B financing round to further increase its production of cocoa-free chocolate.

In the RoKKa project, partners from research and industry have demonstrated how new processes can be used to extract high-quality raw materials for the bioeconomy using wastewater from sewage treatment plants, while at the same time reducing CO₂ emissions.