Chemistry

The end of fossil raw materials such as crude oil, natural gas and coal is approaching. Although they are now mainly used for energy, companies are also looking for sustainable alternatives for material use. At the "Renewable Raw Materials Conference" in Siegburg in May, the "Renewable Raw Material of the Year 2023" will be voted on. From 30 applications, the organizer nova-Institut and the conference advisory board have selected six candidates for the final - including two German start-ups.

Spent grain, which is a by-product of beer brewing, contains many valuable ingredients. With its high protein content, spent grain can be used as animal feed, for example. In reality, however, it is usually disposed of as waste. Researchers have now discovered the residual material as a source of raw materials for new biobased products. Researchers at the University of Jena, for example, have joined forces with Spanish partners to test whether brewer's grains are also suitable for the production of modern electrochemical energy storage systems.

Photosynthesis is the basis of all plant life: plants use the chemical reaction chain to build biomass from carbon dioxide in the air and solar energy. Of central importance in this process are the so-called photosystems I and II - enzyme complexes that catalyze the chemical reactions. For a long time, researchers have been trying to technically imitate photosynthesis in order to produce chemical compounds cheaply and sustainably.

A sustainable bioeconomy pursues the goal of utilizing biomass as completely as possible while realizing as many material uses as possible. Usually, this is done in several successive processes that are bundled in biorefineries. But there is another way: with so-called torrefaction, a variety of products can be generated from biomass in just one step. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology (IGB) have developed such a process. In Estonia, a start-up now tests the process in a first industrial-scale prototype.

It is not only Bundesliga clubs that rely on artificial turf for their playing surfaces. Smaller clubs also prefer the low-maintenance and weather-independent material and are making the necessary investments. There are already around 9,000 artificial turf pitches in Germany. But these have so far been based on fossil raw materials and contribute to microplastics entering the environment. The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has calculated that artificial turf pitches in Europe are responsible for 16,000 tons of microplastics in the environment every year.

Whether in cosmetics, detergents or cleaning agents: Surfactants can be found in many products. Today, however, the molecules should not only be more effective and skin-friendly than in the past, but also biodegradable and produced from renewable raw materials. Researchers in the LipoPep joint project have taken up these challenges. Under the leadership of TH Köln, research has been conducted over the past three years into how renewable raw materials from native plants such as lupins, sunflowers and rapeseed can be used to produce surfactants.

Aniline is an important component in the production of the plastic polyurethane, which is used for numerous everyday products such as mattresses or insulating materials. Until now, the chemical has been produced mainly on the basis of petroleum. Covestro, as one of the world's leading aniline producers, is breaking new ground. The Leverkusen-based materials manufacturer wants to produce the important chemical from plant biomass. The foundations for this were laid in recent years as part of the Bio4PUR and Bio4PURPro projects.

The chemical industry still relies predominantly on petroleum as a fossil raw material, but the industry is changing: bio-based raw materials such as residual and waste materials are increasingly being used as feedstock for the manufacture of chemical products. But processing biomass is not always easy. A team led by chemical engineer Jakob Albert from the University of Hamburg wants to tackle this problem. As part of the "BioValCat" project, the researchers want to develop an industrial process to extract ingredients for the chemical industry from biomass.

In 2013, AMSilk became the world's first company to produce biotechnologically manufactured spider silk modeled on nature. Founded in 2008 as a spin-off from the Technical University of Munich, the company uses transformed bacteria to produce the spider silk proteins. The microbial production and processing of the biodegradable silk protein requires only sugar from renewable plants, water, minerals and energy.