Food packaging is designed to protect food so that it remains edible and reaches the consumer undamaged. Until now, petroleum-based plastics have mostly been used for this purpose. Yet the trend away from fossil raw materials also poses new challenges for the packaging industry. Sustainable alternatives are needed to conserve resources and protect the environment.
Microorganisms such as bacteria, yeasts or molds are masters of material conversion and have always been an important tool in biotechnology. With their help, materials can be produced that are naturally biobased and biodegradable - bioplastics, for example. But not all bacteria of interest to biotechnology work as desired, because they are difficult to "tame." Researchers at the Institute of Microbiology and Molecular Biology at Justus Liebig University Giessen (JLU) have now found a way to achieve this by controlling their gene expression.
Even in remote parts of the world, such as the Arctic, researchers now find microplastic particles. But the tiny plastic particles don't just float in the water and harm marine animals and ecosystems. The particles also enter the atmosphere via wind and waves, as a study by a German-Norwegian research team shows.
Leaf fleas are a horror for fruit growers. The so-called psyllids sting the plant with their sucking mouthparts and suck out the plant sap. In this way, the parasitic leaf fleas sometimes cause high crop losses. Until now, fruit growers have tried to control the pest with the help of synthetic chemical pesticides. An international team of researchers with the participation of the Julius Kühn Institute (JKI) has now, by chance, found a suitable antagonist in a parasitic fungus to eliminate the leaf flea in fruit growing in a natural way.
It has been seven years since chemists at the University of Konstanz presented a completely new class of plastics that resemble biomaterials in structure. The so-called mineral plastic was a hydrogel consisting of nanoparticles of calcium carbonate (lime) crosslinked with polyacrylic acid in water. Hardly any energy is consumed in its production, as room temperature is sufficient. It also has self-healing properties and is easily recyclable. But the mineral plastic had a crucial flaw: due to its chemical components, it was not biodegradable.
Enzymes are at the core of biotechnology. As biocatalysts, they are supposed to help the chemical industry to move away from environmentally harmful processes and to enable particularly sustainable processes. Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have now transformed the enzymes into a new form: As foams, the biocatalysts prove to be extremely stable and active.
Whether it's a car, a wind turbine or an airplane, for a machine to run smoothly it usually needs lubricants, but these are traditionally based on fossil raw materials. In the PolyBioFe project, partners from research and industry have produced lubricating greases that consist almost entirely of renewable raw materials. The project focused primarily on developing a bio-based alternative to polymer thickeners, which are an important component of lubricants for rolling bearings.
Paper or packaging usually consists of pulp obtained from wood. However, paper production is very energy-intensive. Moreover, wood grows only slowly and demand has increased in recent years, as the raw material has long since become an important source for sustainable products such as bio-based plastics. But there are alternatives: Cellulose can also be obtained from other plants such as grass.
Clean air is important - also for the so-called springtails, a widespread class of arthropods. The animals, which are only a few millimeters in size, have a special feature: they almost all breathe exclusively through their skin. As organisms that frequently live on the ground, springtails face the challenge of keeping this very skin as free as possible from pollutants and pathogens so as not to endanger their respiration. Researchers at the Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research in Dresden have now discovered how the animals manage this.
The end of fossil fuels such as gasoline and diesel has been heralded. Many countries have already decided when vehicles running on these fuels may no longer be marketed or registered. However, liquid fuels with high energy density could continue to play a role in shipping, aviation and certain commercial vehicles. CO2-neutral alternatives must be found for them.