Towards a Sustainable Bioeconomy

Topic 7 contributes to a sustainable bioeconomy that provides food and renewable resources for industry to a growing and demanding human population while re-ducing the environmental footprint and supporting a growing circular economy.

Producing food and feed, materials, chemicals and energy carriers require the use of natural resources. However, current practices consume resources much faster than they can be replenished by natural cycles. Therefore, a central challenge in the management of the Earth system is to develop a sus-tainable economy, which fulfills human needs, but does not overexploit the resources. This is a major task with the world population expected to be close to ten billion in 2050. The linear approach of today´s economy with massive overconsumption of natural resources and goods based on excessive use of fossil resources is not sustainable. In contrast, a sustainable economy needs to provide stewardship to natural resources and must integrate human consumption into the circular economy. The target is a sustainable supply of ample and healthy food and feed, sufficient and innovative materials and chemicals as well as renewable energy. At the same time, we need to reduce the negative impact on vital functions of (eco-) systems and provide stewardship to precious resources like atmosphere, land, water, nutrients as well as to marine, coastal and urban environ-ments and biodiversity.
Utilizing knowledge about biological systems will be key to deliver towards i) improving production for food and feed, chemicals, materials and energy with respect to amount, quality and footprint, ii) increasing the effi-ciency of the use of natural resources, while decreasing overconsumption, and iii) making the global economy more sustainable by application of biological concepts (or principles) in economic and technical environments.

An overview by Topic speaker Michael Bott

Structure

Biological and environmental resources for sustainable use

Plants, microbes, enzymes, aquaculture organisms and their ecosystems represent major targets for production systems and for maintaining biological resources. ST7.1 will expand and improve the fundamental knowledge on these resources as basis for bioeconomy value chains/networks and on eco-system functions, including the capabilities of microbial systems to break down organic chemicals under field conditions. It will contribute novel technologies and methods to improve plant breeding, microbial strain development and aquaculture systems. Highlights are the unique competence in ST7.1 to gain quantitative information on dynamic performance of organisms under production conditions. We develop and use a unique portfolio of ‘omics’ technologies, (bio)informatics, bioengineering, non-invasive phenotyping technologies, and quantitative remote sensing focusing on digital bioeconomy approaches.

Speakers: Ulrich Schurr (FZJ) and Michael Bott (FZJ)

Utilization of renewable carbon and energy sources and engineering of ecosystem functions

Scope and challenges. The target of ST7.2 is to design, understand, quantify and engineer resource-efficient conversion processes and technologies for bioeconomy products as well as processes supporting ecosystem functions. A broad resource spectrum is considered including biomass-derived material from primary produc-tion, residues or waste, inorganic resources such as CO2 and/or water, as well as resources of fossil origin. At the product side, platform and fine chemicals, microbial and plant secondary metabolites, pharmaceuticals, proteins, materials, energy carriers, and electricity will be addressed. The ST also targets the development of biological and technical systems that are used to mine, degrade, and manage chemicals in natural and techni-cal systems.

Speakers: Andreas Schmid (UFZ) and Wolfgang Wiechert (FZJ)

Agro-biogeosystems: controls, feedbacks and impact

ST7.3 will focus on agro-biogeosystems and the interplay between producing ecosys-tems (focusing on agricultural and forest ecosystems) and the environment. Impact and feedback of primary production on the environmental compartments (soil, atmosphere, water) will be analyzed to develop and optimize integrated systemic approaches that minimize feedback loops with negative impacts. GHG emissions from the agricultural sector in the EU-28 accounted for 471 million tons of CO2 equivalents in 2012 (10% of total GHG emissions (EC)). Thus, results from ST7.3 serve as a basis for climate-smart and climate-resilient agri/silviculture. The focus is on fundamental understanding of soil-plant-atmosphere processes and nutrient cycling (ST7.1) in agroecosystems across scales, aiming at a better comprehension of the interplay between hydrologic, biotic, and geochemical processes. This knowledge forms the basis of integrated multi-scale ter-restrial modeling that represents producing ecosystems, allows to design near real-time management, gen-erates knowledge/information from large data streams (from simulation and measurement), and contributes to a digital bioeconomy. Quantitative analysis of production systems on ecosystem services will be done with respect to atmosphere, water, biogeochemical cycles and local climate (T1 and T5).

Speaker: Jan Vanderborght (FZJ)

Recent Highlights

Event

Topic 7 Fall Meeting- Towards a Sustainable Bioeconomy in Forschungszentrum Jülich

A key step towards sustainability is the establishment of a sustainable economy that meets the needs of people while conserving the Earth's resources. Given the context of a growing global population—projected to reach around 10 billion by 2050—this challenge becomes increasingly significant. To promote such a sustainable bioeconomy, close collaboration across disciplinary boundaries is essential. The annual Fall Meeting of Topic 7, which is part of the Helmholtz Program Earth and Environment, supports scientists in engaging in interdisciplinary exchanges and fostering new collaborations. Through formats such as presentations and breakout sessions, participants gain insights into the work of their colleagues and identify potential synergies. Additionally, the guests received a glimpse into the infrastructure of the Forschungszentrum Jülich through lab tours. From October 28 to 30, the scientists of Topic 7 gathered to collectively advance the development of a sustainable bioeconomy. We extend our gratitude to all contributors from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), SynCom office, and Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ) for their valuable contributions.