The uses of new materials made from natural raw products range from cutlery and plant protection up to water purification. With a multitude of innovative applications, scientists, developers and operators convinced over 220 participants from 14 countries during the 8th International Symposium "Materials Made from Renewable Resources" at the fair centre in Erfurt.
In 2009, more than 10% of electricity, heat, cooling energy and fuel was provided by renewable energy in Germany. In Thuringia, it makes up almost a fifth of the primary energy consumption, the main proportion coming from biomass. With this figure, the free state takes pole position in Germany.
Renewable raw materials are a top priority in providing a sustainable power supply. With their help, the efficiency of resources, environmental protection and cost-effectiveness can be attained in a sustainable way. A balance must be achieved between the material and energetic use of vegetable and animal biomass so that supply with raw materials and nutrition can be ensured despite population growth, stressed Professor Dr. Michael Röper, BASF SE.
In particular, diversification and a sufficient range of raw materials should be strived for in Germany, explained Prof. Röper on behalf of the scientific societies of the chemical industry in Germany GDCh, DECHEMA and DGMK as well as the Verband der Chemischen Industrie (German chemical industry association) (VCI). There are "two time frames" for renewable raw materials. In the mid-term, a further expansion of joint product production with the food and animal feed industries is to be expected. In the longer term, "the integrated reprocessing of non-food biomass will come to the fore, combining to supply energy, bio gas, fuels and chemicals", explains the expert. He believes that the use of regenerative hydrogen - which is generated without the production of carbon dioxide from water - will still have to wait for quite some time.
The energetic waste of fossil raw materials should be reduced, for example, "by battery powered car engines, through energy saving construction designs in houses or energetic process optimisation", demanded Prof. Röper. Then the time frame for using crude oil would increase.
Bioplastics in focus
Bioplastics are a thing of the future - something which not only chemists are convinced by. The fields of application are rapidly increasing. The handling processes are being treated in a continuously improved way, which enables, for example, them to be used in packaging. Thermoform machines transform materials from rich-in-amylose corn starch into a protective cladding which is water soluble and even completely biologically degradable, as demonstrated by Plantic Technologies GmbH from Schorba near Jena. With this substance, sustainable packaging solutions are created for the electronics, cosmetics and food industries.
Pulp energy recovery is currently experiencing a period of innovation. Alongside natural fibres such as hemp, dissolving pulp is one of the most important sustainable materials in material use. Writing implements, cutlery and technical formed parts for consumer products result from a cellulose based mass which was developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology (UMSICHT), as reported by Fraunhofer employee Thomas Wodke. The substance can already be processed in injection moulding machines, but its use is often still associated with limited productivity. Improvements regarding resource efficiency and cost-effectiveness can be achieved by material-specific tool designing.
Functional fibres on the way up
Seven different types of custom-made functional fibres have already been developed based on cellulose. Dr. Ralf-Uwe Bauer, Managing Director of the Thuringian Institute of Textile and Plastics Research (TITK) and management board member of the smartfiber AG Rudolstadt, reported about the new, environmentally friendly methods for the manufacturing and processing of cellulose. Depending on requirements, the substances each have electrical, bioactive, heat saving or absorbent characteristics. The aim of smartfiber AG, a spin-off from TITK, is "convincing companies of the energy recovery benefits of the high-tech fibres so that these themselves carry out active marketing for the innovative products and launch them onto the market", remarked Dr. Bauer with a critical take on the - in his opinion - too faint-hearted position of the economy.
Wood has a promising future
Among the industrially used renewable raw materials, wood has the highest share at over 80 %. Just over half of this is firstly used materially and can then subsequently also be used energetically. "The very traditional construction and raw material has become modern once again", said Professor Dr. Alfred Teischinger from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna. The entire forest - wood process chain is comparably not very energy-intensive from harvesting to the product, which adds an important material property in the discussion regarding the ecological rating of products and processes. Wood has a new valuation and therefore, has also experienced an economic uplift which has had an effect in product and technological innovations. Material engineering has essentially changed fields of application with wood.
Wood polymer composites (WPC) are being treated as a material group with an enormous amount of potential. They are among the fastest growing market sectors in the plastics industry. The rapid development over the past two decades to the current level of quality has already led to applications in the furniture industry, the automobile sector and use in cladding. The combination of wood and plastics offers many multi-purpose opportunities, as shown by a frame made from wood veneer composite material (WVC) used in a company's transport machines for salt production.
WVC is a wood veneer glued in layers and, through its design, enables adjustments to environmental influences. Static and dynamic investigations have shown the basic suitability of the derived timber product. Wood has characteristics which even generate a technical added value, as Sven Eichhorn and Ronny Eckardt from the Chemnitz University of Technology showed. Compared to non-alloy steel, a lower material degradation resulted under the influence of various chemicals, including salts in fluid (brine) and solid form (road salt).
The strength of starch
With products made from high amylose starch, the amynova polymers GmbH from Bitterfeld-Wolfen has completed the ecological cycle. The innovation has been tested ranging from the agricultural cultivation of plants to the extraction and use of the starch solution in agriculture to complete biological degradation. The starch solution can be used as a ground laying medium for plant protection. In the process, a layer is formed for moistening with very good adhesive properties. It saves the resources used like a repository and releases them little by little. While allowing for a lower application of plant protection agents, the efficiency of the cultivation increases at the same time, as crop loss, weeds and damage to plants are reduced.
The recycling of the entire plants increases the material and cost efficiency of natural fibres. At the same time, these fibres can support the characteristics of building components at a high level. The benefits compared to conventional natural fibres as reinforcement in plastic components was pointed out by Roman Rinberg from the Chemnitz University of Technology.
Supporting material from bioplastics, which are completely biodegradable, help in the cleaning of water, particularly in arid countries. Micro organisms settle in the biopolymers and, with a high degree of efficiency, ensure the simultaneous degradation of the harmful substances ammonium nitrogen and nitrate, as researched by Dr. Werner Anton in a project by the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. The advancement is huge because in the current processing, the individual substances must be decomposed one after the other. The environmental engineer is presently dealing with the central question of which micro organisms cause the decomposition of the harmful substances.
The accompanying trade exhibition "naro.tech - Fair for Renewable Raw Materials" and the agricultural trade fair "Green Days Thuringia", which took place at the same time, have increased the impact of the symposium and ensured the connection between theory and practice. "Among management and consumers, the events have increased interest in renewable raw materials, particularly with regards to their material use", declared Johann Fuchsgruber, Managing Director of Messe Erfurt, happily.
For further information:
www.narotech.de
www.gruenetage.de
In 2009, more than 10% of electricity, heat, cooling energy and fuel was provided by renewable energy in Germany. In Thuringia, it makes up almost a fifth of the primary energy consumption, the main proportion coming from biomass. With this figure, the free state takes pole position in Germany.
Renewable raw materials are a top priority in providing a sustainable power supply. With their help, the efficiency of resources, environmental protection and cost-effectiveness can be attained in a sustainable way. A balance must be achieved between the material and energetic use of vegetable and animal biomass so that supply with raw materials and nutrition can be ensured despite population growth, stressed Professor Dr. Michael Röper, BASF SE.
In particular, diversification and a sufficient range of raw materials should be strived for in Germany, explained Prof. Röper on behalf of the scientific societies of the chemical industry in Germany GDCh, DECHEMA and DGMK as well as the Verband der Chemischen Industrie (German chemical industry association) (VCI). There are "two time frames" for renewable raw materials. In the mid-term, a further expansion of joint product production with the food and animal feed industries is to be expected. In the longer term, "the integrated reprocessing of non-food biomass will come to the fore, combining to supply energy, bio gas, fuels and chemicals", explains the expert. He believes that the use of regenerative hydrogen - which is generated without the production of carbon dioxide from water - will still have to wait for quite some time.
The energetic waste of fossil raw materials should be reduced, for example, "by battery powered car engines, through energy saving construction designs in houses or energetic process optimisation", demanded Prof. Röper. Then the time frame for using crude oil would increase.
Bioplastics in focus
Bioplastics are a thing of the future - something which not only chemists are convinced by. The fields of application are rapidly increasing. The handling processes are being treated in a continuously improved way, which enables, for example, them to be used in packaging. Thermoform machines transform materials from rich-in-amylose corn starch into a protective cladding which is water soluble and even completely biologically degradable, as demonstrated by Plantic Technologies GmbH from Schorba near Jena. With this substance, sustainable packaging solutions are created for the electronics, cosmetics and food industries.
Pulp energy recovery is currently experiencing a period of innovation. Alongside natural fibres such as hemp, dissolving pulp is one of the most important sustainable materials in material use. Writing implements, cutlery and technical formed parts for consumer products result from a cellulose based mass which was developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology (UMSICHT), as reported by Fraunhofer employee Thomas Wodke. The substance can already be processed in injection moulding machines, but its use is often still associated with limited productivity. Improvements regarding resource efficiency and cost-effectiveness can be achieved by material-specific tool designing.
Functional fibres on the way up
Seven different types of custom-made functional fibres have already been developed based on cellulose. Dr. Ralf-Uwe Bauer, Managing Director of the Thuringian Institute of Textile and Plastics Research (TITK) and management board member of the smartfiber AG Rudolstadt, reported about the new, environmentally friendly methods for the manufacturing and processing of cellulose. Depending on requirements, the substances each have electrical, bioactive, heat saving or absorbent characteristics. The aim of smartfiber AG, a spin-off from TITK, is "convincing companies of the energy recovery benefits of the high-tech fibres so that these themselves carry out active marketing for the innovative products and launch them onto the market", remarked Dr. Bauer with a critical take on the - in his opinion - too faint-hearted position of the economy.
Wood has a promising future
Among the industrially used renewable raw materials, wood has the highest share at over 80 %. Just over half of this is firstly used materially and can then subsequently also be used energetically. "The very traditional construction and raw material has become modern once again", said Professor Dr. Alfred Teischinger from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna. The entire forest - wood process chain is comparably not very energy-intensive from harvesting to the product, which adds an important material property in the discussion regarding the ecological rating of products and processes. Wood has a new valuation and therefore, has also experienced an economic uplift which has had an effect in product and technological innovations. Material engineering has essentially changed fields of application with wood.
Wood polymer composites (WPC) are being treated as a material group with an enormous amount of potential. They are among the fastest growing market sectors in the plastics industry. The rapid development over the past two decades to the current level of quality has already led to applications in the furniture industry, the automobile sector and use in cladding. The combination of wood and plastics offers many multi-purpose opportunities, as shown by a frame made from wood veneer composite material (WVC) used in a company's transport machines for salt production.
WVC is a wood veneer glued in layers and, through its design, enables adjustments to environmental influences. Static and dynamic investigations have shown the basic suitability of the derived timber product. Wood has characteristics which even generate a technical added value, as Sven Eichhorn and Ronny Eckardt from the Chemnitz University of Technology showed. Compared to non-alloy steel, a lower material degradation resulted under the influence of various chemicals, including salts in fluid (brine) and solid form (road salt).
The strength of starch
With products made from high amylose starch, the amynova polymers GmbH from Bitterfeld-Wolfen has completed the ecological cycle. The innovation has been tested ranging from the agricultural cultivation of plants to the extraction and use of the starch solution in agriculture to complete biological degradation. The starch solution can be used as a ground laying medium for plant protection. In the process, a layer is formed for moistening with very good adhesive properties. It saves the resources used like a repository and releases them little by little. While allowing for a lower application of plant protection agents, the efficiency of the cultivation increases at the same time, as crop loss, weeds and damage to plants are reduced.
The recycling of the entire plants increases the material and cost efficiency of natural fibres. At the same time, these fibres can support the characteristics of building components at a high level. The benefits compared to conventional natural fibres as reinforcement in plastic components was pointed out by Roman Rinberg from the Chemnitz University of Technology.
Supporting material from bioplastics, which are completely biodegradable, help in the cleaning of water, particularly in arid countries. Micro organisms settle in the biopolymers and, with a high degree of efficiency, ensure the simultaneous degradation of the harmful substances ammonium nitrogen and nitrate, as researched by Dr. Werner Anton in a project by the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. The advancement is huge because in the current processing, the individual substances must be decomposed one after the other. The environmental engineer is presently dealing with the central question of which micro organisms cause the decomposition of the harmful substances.
The accompanying trade exhibition "naro.tech - Fair for Renewable Raw Materials" and the agricultural trade fair "Green Days Thuringia", which took place at the same time, have increased the impact of the symposium and ensured the connection between theory and practice. "Among management and consumers, the events have increased interest in renewable raw materials, particularly with regards to their material use", declared Johann Fuchsgruber, Managing Director of Messe Erfurt, happily.
For further information:
www.narotech.de
www.gruenetage.de
