21 dicembre 2023 – I prodotti chimici di origine biologica hanno il potenziale per sostituire in parte i combustibili fossili nei processi che trattano fertilizzanti e plastica, ma secondo gli scienziati la transizione richiederà decenni e ci sono ancora grandi sfide da affrontare per aumentare la produzione senza danneggiare l’ambiente.

La bioeconomia in Europa ha raggiunto la maggiore età da quando la Commissione Europea ha lanciato per la prima volta il partenariato pubblico-privato per l’industria a base biologica più di 10 anni fa.

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Bio-based chemicals have the potential to partly replace fossil fuels in applications like fertilisers and plastics, but the transition will take decades and there are still big challenges ahead to scale up production without harming the environment, scientists say.

The bioeconomy in Europe has come of age since the European Commission first launched its bio-based industry joint undertaking more than 10 years ago.

“If you look how we started out since 2012 … we actually moved from a predominantly bio-based fuels focus on bioenergy towards more higher-value products such as polymers, chemicals, and bioactive compounds,” says Kevin O’Connor, professor of applied microbiology and biotechnology at University College, Dublin.

At the time, many thought the bioeconomy was about replacing fossil with bio-based products one-for-one, O’Connor told a recent stakeholder forum of the EU’s Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE JU).