Fifteen years after the first edition of the Sustainability Strategy was released, the Federal Government has unveiled a new version in the form of the "German Sustainability Strategy" (DNS).
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.
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".
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.
Berlin-based Organobalance specializes in developing natural microbial solutions for customers and partners across a number of industries.
The researchers' report on their discovery in the 'PNAS' specialist journal. In addition to carbon dioxide, methane is a climate killer that presents a long-term threat to life on earth. However, for many terrestrial and marine microorganisms this greenhouse gas is the elixir of life. The microbes oxidize the carbon dioxide and extract energy from the process.
BASF and Avantium have formed a joint venture for the production and marketing of the green building block furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) and the drop-in bioplastic polyethylene furanoate (PEF) made from FDCA. Synvina will be headquartered in Amsterdam and will invest several hundred millions euros to build a plant producing 50,000 metric tons annually at BASF’s Verbund site in Antwerp, Belgium, to demonstrate feasibility of manufacture at industrial scale and to license production.
According to Gilles Laroche, Head of Unit F1 – Bioeconomy Strategy– at DG Research and Innovation, “the review won’t be finalised before mid-2017 and the results will be available only in autumn 2017”. Prior plans foresaw the announcement of the results at the end of 2016.