After cellulose, lignin is the second most common biopolymer on earth. It is a major component of trees and grasses and is produced in large quantities as a waste product in paper, pulp and bioethanol production. However, as this complex biopolymer is difficult to break down, the residual material is usually incinerated. An international research team led by the Leibniz Institute for Catalysis (LIKAT) is now showing how lignin can be efficiently utilised.
Fruit pomace, rapeseed straw and potato peelings are usually used in animal feed. For the bioeconomy, however, these residues have long been valuable raw materials that can be used both materially and energetically. In the BIOWIN project, young researchers at the TU Bergakademie Freiberg want to upgrade these biogenic residues from agriculture and forestry, which have been insufficiently utilised in Saxony to date, and transform them into innovative, polymer-based materials.
Whether surfboards, skis or hiking poles: sports equipment used outdoors must not only be stable and durable, but also function in extreme temperatures. The demands placed on the materials are accordingly high. Many sports equipment items are therefore made of aluminium and carbon fibres, but these require a lot of energy to manufacture and are difficult to recycle. The German Institutes for Textile and Fibre Research Denkendorf (DITF) are now working with industry partners to demonstrate that bio-based materials can also perform well in outdoor sports.
Chloroplasts are the ‘light power plants’ of plant cells and are responsible for photosynthesis. They host numerous metabolic processes that are of great interest for biotechnological innovations. The targeted incorporation of genes into these organelles is considered particularly safe and precise. However, there is currently a lack of scalable methods for efficiently testing genetic building blocks.
Biofabrication refers to the controlled production of biological structures, tissues and materials using combined processes from biotechnology, engineering and materials science. Through the use of cell-based systems, biomimetic materials and digitally controlled manufacturing technologies, it is possible to develop biological systems in a targeted manner, design them to be functional and manufacture them on a scalable basis.
Methanol is a valuable synthetic raw material in the chemical industry, which is also used as a solvent and fuel. In future, methanol produced from plant-based raw materials and residues could replace some of the chemicals currently based on fossil raw materials. This is where the ‘biogeniV’ alliance, funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) as part of the ‘WIR! – Innovation and Structural Change’ programme, comes in.
Ethylene is one of the most important raw materials in the chemical industry and is used, among other things, in the production of numerous plastics such as polyethylene (PE). However, the production of platform chemicals based on fossil raw materials generates large amounts of greenhouse gases. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg and the Technical University of Kaiserslautern have now discovered a bacterial enzyme that could be the key to sustainable ethylene production without CO2 emissions.
Glycolate – also known as glycolic acid – is a basic chemical and serves as a starting material for the production of preservatives, polymers and medicines. Until now, the substance has been obtained from fossil raw materials, some of which are toxic. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Organic Electronics, Electron Beam and Plasma Technology (FEP) in Dresden, Chemnitz University of Technology and Leipzig University are currently developing a sustainable process for glycolate production as part of the PhotoKon project.
Plastics are an integral part of everyday life – from packaging to technical components. Until now, however, they could only be produced using petroleum, which is not only a finite resource but also causes considerable environmental pollution during extraction and processing. As part of his doctoral thesis at Ruhr University Bochum, which was funded by the German Federal Environmental Foundation, Daniel Eggerichs therefore developed a process that enables genetically modified bacteria to produce plastic precursors from waste from the paper industry.
Whether in smartphones or computers, printed circuit boards are found in almost all electronic devices. They are made from non-renewable raw materials such as glass fibres and epoxy resin and are difficult to recycle. The figures speak for themselves: around 60% of the 62 million tonnes of electronic waste generated each year is circuit boards.