Sustainability Transition Towards a Bio-Based Economy: New Technologies, New Products, New Policies.

(This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue "Sustainability Transition Towards a Bio-Based Economy: New Technologies, New Products, New Policies" that was published in Sustainability

Petroleum-based industrial products have gradually replaced products derived from biological materials. However, biologically based products are making a comebackâ€"because of a threefold increase in farm productivity and new technologies. Biobased Industrial Products envisions a biobased industrial future, where starch will be used to make biopolymers and vegetable oils will become a routine component in lubricants and detergents. Biobased Industrial Products overviews the U.S. land resources available for agricultural production, summarizes plant materials currently produced, and describes prospects for increasing varieties and yields. The committee discusses the concept of the biorefinery and outlines proven and potential thermal, mechanical, and chemical technologies for conversion of natural resources to industrial applications. The committee also illustrates the developmental dynamics of biobased products through existing examples, as well as products still on the drawing board, and it identifies priorities for research and development.

Research and innovation in the life sciences is driving rapid growth in agriculture, biomedical science, information science and computing, energy, and other sectors of the U.S. economy. This economic activity, conceptually referred to as the bioeconomy, presents many opportunities to create jobs, improve the quality of life, and continue to drive economic growth. While the United States has been a leader in advancements in the biological sciences, other countries are also actively investing in and expanding their capabilities in this area. Maintaining competitiveness in the bioeconomy is key to maintaining the economic health and security of the United States and other nations. Safeguarding the Bioeconomy evaluates preexisting and potential approaches for assessing the value of the bioeconomy and identifies intangible assets not sufficiently captured or that are missing from U.S. assessments. This study considers strategies for safeguarding and sustaining the economic activity driven by research and innovation in the life sciences. It also presents ideas for horizon scanning mechanisms to identify new technologies, markets, and data sources that have the potential to drive future development of the bioeconomy.

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book defines the new field of "Bioeconomy" as the sustainable and innovative use of biomass and biological knowledge to provide food, feed, industrial products, bioenergy and ecological services. The chapters highlight the importance of bioeconomy-related concepts in public, scientific, and political discourse. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the authors outline the dimensions of the bioeconomy as a means of achieving sustainability. The authors are ideally situated to elaborate on the diverse aspects of the bioeconomy. They have acquired in-depth experience of interdisciplinary research through the university’s focus on “Bioeconomy”, its contribution to the Bioeconomy Research Program of the federal state of Baden-Württemberg, and its participation in the German Bioeconomy Council. With the number of bioeconomy-related projects at European universities rising, this book will provide graduate students and researchers with background information on the bioeconomy. It will familiarize scientific readers with bioeconomy-related terms and give scientific background for economists, agronomists and natural scientists alike.

Globally we are being confronted by the depletion of many natural resources as a result of unsustainable use and increasing global population. Although the debate on the bioeconomy has gained momentum in recent decades, the interest in certifications and standards for biobased products is still weak. This book aims to fill this gap by promoting a holistic approach, which covers environmental, social and economic sustainability aspects and pushes forward the development of a circular, biobased economy. This book promotes the development of sustainability schemes (including standards, labels and certifications) for the assessment of biobased products, which are fundamental to the establishment of a cutting-edge sustainable bioeconomy. Chemical-related, globally relevant case studies are used throughout the book. The content covers a range of issues from upstream and downstream environmental, techno-economic and social assessment, to crosscutting issues such as indirect land use change (iLUC) and end-of-life options. The chapters included in this book will provide a comprehensive review of recent works on life cycle assessment (LCA), life cycle costing (LCC) and social life cycle assessment (s-LCA) methodologies. An important resource for researchers, industrial professionals and policy makers involved in the bioeconomy.

Biobased Products and Industries fills the gap between academia and industry by covering all the important aspects of biobased products and their relevant industries in one single reference. Highlighting different perspectives of the bioeconomy, EU relevant projects, as well as the environmental impact of biobased materials and sustainability, the book covers biobased polymers, plastics, nanocomposites, packaging materials, electric devices, biofuels, textiles, consumer goods, and biocatalysis for the decarboxylation and decarboxylation of biobased molecules, including biobased products from alternative sources (algae) and the biobased production of chemicals through metabolic engineering. Focusing on the most recent advances in the field, the book also analyzes the potentiality of already commercialized processes and products. - Highlights the important aspects of biobased products as well as their relevant industries in one single reference - Focuses on the most recent advances in the field, analyzing the potentiality of already commercialized processes and products - Provides an ideal resource for anyone dealing with bioresource technology, biomass valorization and new products development