Curt Beck has used an innovative process to overcome that limitation. The process engineer from Dresden has developed innovative winding technology for the manufacture of wooden tubes from fine veneer. As directors of LignoTUBE technologies GmbH & Co., Beck and his business partner, designer Robert Taranczewski, have been busy travelling around trying to bring these lightweight and stable veneer tubes to market since 2013.
Bioeconomy refers to the sustainable form of economic activity based on the efficient use of biological resources such as plants, animals and microorganisms. To make this possible, highly innovative approaches are necessary.The bioeconomy covers all industrial and economic sectors, which use renewable biological resources for producing products and providing services using innovative biological and technological knowledge and processes.
Researchers at the Max-Plank Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology (MPI-MP) have now found a way to produce the natural compounds found in soya beans and grapes en mass to be used in medicine. The scientists used the tomato as a natural medicine factory.
Now bio-engineers from Halle have found a way of manufacturing carnosic acid using biotechnology. As the team reports in the scientific journal 'Nature Communications', they do that by using reprogrammed yeast as a cell factory. With its powerful aroma, rosemary counts as one of the most popular kitchen herbs. The cause of the distinctive taste is the vegetable substance carnosic acid. It is also found in sage leaves.
In July 2013, the German Federal Government has been put structures in place to facilitate the development of a biobased economy by means of the "National Policy Strategy Bioeconomy".
Whether in ice cream, pizza, chocolate or biodiesel, palm oil is one of the world's most versatile plant-based oils. That makes it one of the most important raw materials for the bio-based economy. Demand today is higher than ever. About 60 million tonnes of palm oil and palm-kernel oil are produced annually. The area cultivated worldwide is 17 million hectares, about half the land mass of Germany. Around 1.8 million tonnes of palm oil are consumed each year here. The lion's share, 41 per cent, is used in the manufacturing of biodiesel.
Light vehicles that consume little and are therefore less environmentally problematical – that is how the car of the future should be. The foundation for next-generation-but-one vehicle technology has just been laid in the car manufacturing city of Wolfsburg. In the presence of Federal Minister of Research Johanna Wanka, the LeichtbauCampus Open Hybrid Lab Factory was inaugurated at a location not far from the headquarters of VW.
They have names like field bindweed, ragweed or couch grass – but poppies and corncockle count amongst them as well. For farmers, all these plants are weeds. Nature conservationists, on the other hand, speak of wild herbs or 'arable flora'. Many weeds are becoming increasingly resistant to herbicides, hindering the growth of actual crops in the process. The consequences can already be measured in terms of lower harvests.
Researchers from Karlsruhe have now uncovered how clover and fungi 'make friends' with each other. The thread-like fungal hyphae of the mycorrhiza permeate the soil and lead to increased root growth, as the team reports in the scientific journal Current Biology (2016, online publication). Fungi such as downy mildew or grey mould are a plague for both hobby gardeners as well as farmers.