Mechanical engineering

Mechanical and process plant engineering has always been one of the mainstays of the German economy. In a bio-based economy, technical systems, machines and process technology are essential for resource-efficient and sustainable management. The particular engineering challenge lies in having to reconciliate technical and biological requirements. Depending on the specification, biological materials require dedicated machines, plants or processes.

Food industry

With around 6,000 companies and 645,000 employees, the food industry is one of the largest sectors in Germany. According to the Federation of German Food and Drink Industries (BVE), the total turnover in 2023 was almost 230 billion euros. The sector is very much characterised by small and medium-sized enterprises, with 90% of the companies employing fewer than 250 people.  

Consumer goods

According to the Federal Statistical Office, private consumption in Germany amounts to around 31,000 euros per household. With around 14 billion euros, clothing and food as well as personal care and hygiene products accounted for the largest shares of private consumption in Germany in 2020. Around 4.6 billion euros were spent on detergents and cleaning products. The bioeconomy has been an intrinsic part of the consumer goods industry for some time. Many industrial manufacturing processes rely on natural raw materials or bio-based processes.  

Pharmaceuticals

Pharmaceutical companies are increasingly resorting to knowledge about biology for the production of medicines. Although chemically synthesised active ingredients still make up the largest share of the German pharmaceutical market, so-called biopharmaceuticals are catching up. Biopharmaceuticals are biomolecules that are too large to be produced chemically, or at least their production would not be efficient.

Textiles

Clothing has been produced from natural products for thousands of years. The manufacture of linen fabrics from flax fibres goes back as far as the ancient Egyptians and Romans. Inexpensive, petroleum-based synthetic fibres have only become established in recent decades. According to the Industrievereinigung Chemiefaser e.V. (Industrial Association Synthetic Fibres), around 108 million tonnes of textile fibres were produced worldwide in 2020. Natural fibres account for 25%, while synthetic fibres make up 75% of global production. 

Food production of the future

Current agricultural systems are faced with a dilemma: on the one hand, they are essential for the supply of food, but on the other hand, they are partly responsible for climate change and biodiversity loss. An interdisciplinary team from various research institutes wanted to change this. With CUBES Circle, the consortium has created a cycle-based system that is integrated into an urban infrastructure and links different production systems with one another.

“Through innovation, we utilize the entire value chain of the pea”

Legumes such as peas are known to be rich in protein and can replace animal proteins in food and animal feed or expensive soy imports. Saxony-Anhalt is therefore focusing on peas as a crop of the future and is striving to become a “Center for Pea Bioeconomy”. In the “DiPisum” project, a team led by project coordinator Jochen Reif aims to bundle the region's strengths on a broad scale over the coming years and tap into the potential of the pea by utilizing all innovations along the value chain.

Using oats as a source of protein

Oats are one of the oldest cultivated plants and are valued as a food mainly because of the carbohydrates in the grain. As an alternative milk substitute in the form of oat drinks, the plant has been attracting increasing public attention for some years now. Compared to animal milk or soy, however, oat proteins have so far played a minor role in nutrition. Researchers at Anhalt University of Applied Sciences want to change this.

Bio-based coatings for ships

The hull area of large container ships can be over 30,000 square meters, on which a variety of organisms such as algae, mussels and barnacles settle. On the one hand, this increases the flow resistance and therefore fuel consumption, and on the other hand, sensitive marine ecosystems are endangered by introduced species.