Bioeconomy

They are closely linked to the evolution of the biotechnology industry and the capacity to study, understand, and manipulate genetic material that has been possible due to scientific research and technological development.

Notable examples include Brazil’s sugarcane ethanol production, Finland’s wood-fiber packaging innovations, and the Netherlands’ algae-based bioplastics industry.

The bioeconomy comprises those parts of the economy that use renewable biological resources from land and sea – such as crops, forests, fish, animals and micro-organisms – to produce food, health, materials, products, textiles and energy.

Bioeconomy aims to reduce our dependence on fossil natural resources, to prevent biodiversity loss and to create new economic growth and jobs that are in line with the principles of sustainable development.

"[9] In 2010, it was defined in the report "The Knowledge Based Bio-Economy (KBBE) in Europe: Achievements and Challenges" by Albrecht & al. as follows: The bio-economy is the sustainable production and conversion of biomass, for a range of food, health, fibre and industrial products and energy, where renewable biomass encompasses any biological material to be used as raw material.”[5] According to a 2013 study, "the bioeconomy can be defined as an economy where the basic building blocks for materials, chemicals and energy are derived from renewable biological resources".

According to the summit, bioeconomy involves three elements: renewable biomass, enabling and converging technologies, and integration across applications concerning primary production (i.e. all living natural resources), health (i.e. pharmaceuticals and medical devices), and industry (i.e. chemicals, plastics, enzymes, pulp and paper, bioenergy).

By genetically modifying E. coli bacteria so as to allow them to consume CO2, the bacterium may provide the infrastructure for the future renewable production of food and green fuels.

[44] Some common choices of structures to house vertical farming systems include buildings, shipping containers, underground tunnels, and abandoned mine shafts.

[47] There have been several different means of implementing vertical farming systems into communities such as: Paignton,[48] Israel,[49] Singapore,[50] Chicago,[51] Munich,[52] London,[53] Japan,[47] and Lincolnshire.

Lastly, because of its limited land usage, vertical farming is less disruptive to the native plants and animals, leading to further conservation of the local flora and fauna.

[77] Commercial and industrial algae cultivation has numerous uses, including production of nutraceuticals such as omega-3 fatty acids (as algal oil)[78][79][80] or natural food colorants and dyes, food, fertilizers, bioplastics, chemical feedstock (raw material), protein-rich animal/aquaculture feed, pharmaceuticals, and algal fuel,[81] and can also be used as a means of pollution control and natural carbon sequestration.

[87] For example, in 2020, biotechnologists reported the genetically engineered refinement and mechanical description of synergistic enzymes – PETase, first discovered in 2016, and MHETase of Ideonella sakaiensis – for faster depolymerization of PET and also of PEF, which may be useful for depollution, recycling and upcycling of mixed plastics along with other approaches.

[88][89][90] Such approaches may be more environmentally-friendly as well as cost-effective than mechanical and chemical PET-recycling, enabling circular plastic bio-economy solutions via systems based on engineered strains.

But in addition to these, as a renewable natural resource, ingredients from wood can be valorised into innovative bioproducts alongside a range of conventional forest industry products.

In different processes, forest biomass is used to produce textiles, chemicals, cosmetics, fuels, medicine, intelligent packaging, coatings, glues, plastics, food and feed.

In that respect, the key sectors include business activities based on water expertise and technology, water-based tourism, making use of aquatic biomass, and the value chain of fisheries.

[101] According to the European Union the blue bioeconomy has the focus on aquatic or marine environments, especially, on novel aquaculture applications, including non-food, food and feed.

The blue economy means the industries that are related to marine environment activities, e.g. shipbuilding, transport, coastal tourism, renewable energies (such as off-shore windmills), living and non-living resources.

If the trees are taken down in the winter and left to dry for the summer (with teas in the bark and covered so rain can't reach to them), and is then chipped in the fall, the woodchips' moisture content will be approximately 20–25%.

While avoiding the costs associated with refinement, the lower density and higher moisture content of woodchips reduces their calorific value, substantially increasing the feedstock needed to generate an equivalent amount of heat.

The term “bioproduct” refers to a wide array of industrial and commercial products that are characterized by a variety of properties, compositions and processes, as well as different benefits and risks.

To achieve this, the key is to develop new bio-refining technologies to sustainably transform renewable natural resources into bio-based products, materials and fuels, e.g.[114] Synthetic biology can be used for creating nanoparticles which can be used for drug-delivery as well as for other purposes.

Applications include medicine such as designer-nanoparticles that make blood cells eat away—from the inside out—portions of atherosclerotic plaque that cause heart attacks.

Along with the growth in variety of bioplastic materials, properties such as flexibility, durability, printability, transparency, barrier, heat resistance, gloss and many more have been significantly enhanced.

A plant proteins-based biodegradable packaging alternative to plastic was developed based on research about spider silk which is known for its high strength and similar on the molecular level.

[147] Some are concerned it that may not lead to a ecologization of the economy but to an economization of the biological, "the living" and caution that potentials of non-bio-based techniques to achieve greater sustainability need to be considered.

[154] This can also apply to other areas where patents and private intellectual property licenses are being used, often entirely preventing the use and continued development of knowledge and techniques for many years or decades.

[164] In the more recent novel Change Agent prevalent black market clinics offer wealthy people unauthorized human genetic enhancement services and e.g. custom narcotics are 3D-printed locally or smuggled with soft robots.

[165][166] Solarpunk is another emerging genre that focuses on the relationship between human societies and the environment and also addresses many of the bioeconomy's issues and technologies such as genetic engineering, synthetic meat and commodification.

A video by New Harvest and Xprize explaining the development of cultured meat and a "post-animal bio-economy" driven by lab-grown protein (meat, eggs, milk)