How renewable resources are replacing petroleum

The idea behind both projects is the same: the aim is to no longer obtain the carbon required in the economy from fossil raw materials. For 150 years, the chemical and materials industry has geared its production perfectly to the further processing of crude oil and natural gas. Now it faces a huge challenge: Driven by climate protection goals and constraints, the industry is looking for renewable sources with a better CO2 balance.

Carbon is not only the main component in the human body, but also the basis of almost all modern materials such as plastics. Demand is growing rapidly: by 2050, global consumption will double to 1.15 billion tons per year, according to researchers at the Nova Institute in Hürth near Cologne.

Continental wants to make tires from dandelions

Today, 88 percent of the required amount comes from oil and gas. For the goal of CO2-free chemistry in 2050, the value would have to drop to zero. This will not be possible with renewable raw materials from waste and plants alone.

“We will need a triad,” says Michael Carus, scientist and head of the Nova Institute, which specializes in bio-based economy. This includes the recycling of plastics and chemicals, as well as the direct extraction of carbon from CO2. “But without the innovative use of biomass, the goal will not be achievable.”

Accordingly, start-ups and corporations are now driving the development forward. The tire manufacturer Continental is working with several partners to one day be able to produce car tires from dandelions on a large scale. So far, the rubber required has been obtained synthetically from fossil raw materials or naturally from trees in Asia.

But the milky sap of the “Russian dandelion” that can be grown in Europe also contains rubber. Continental has already produced a bicycle tire on this basis. The aim of the long-term project is to industrialize the cultivation of rubber dandelion and use it in the automotive industry for tires and rubber.

Traceless designs compostable plastic alternative

The founders Anne Lamp and Johanna Baare also want to achieve production on an industrial scale. Your start-up Traceless Materials, founded in 2020, has received several awards for its innovative process: The material used to replace conventional plastic is obtained exclusively from naturally occurring biopolymers. They are not chemically modified or synthetically manufactured.

The substances come from leftovers from industrial grain processing in breweries or from starch production. The Traceless material is completely different from classic plastic, which is not compostable, says Managing Director Lamp. However, the possible uses for packaging, for example, are comparable.

This can currently be checked in a Hamburg branch of the textile retailer C&A: There pairs of socks hang on clothes hooks from Traceless, which end up on the local compost or in the brown bin after purchase. Lufthansa is considering using the material for packaging in-flight meals.

The mail-order company Otto wants to use the compostable material for mailing bags. But tests in April showed that the bags could not be closed securely enough with glue.

It is clear to the founding duo: the innovation will only prevail if it is accepted by customers and at a competitive price. To this end, the company wants to quickly scale production to an industrial level. The Hamburg company wants to produce one million tons of the material in 2030.

Sugar furs and collar linings

The US company Covation Biomaterials, on the other hand, has developed a process with which it wants to conquer the clothing industry. The Delaware company offers the first commercially available plant-based faux fur materials.

Although jacket linings, collar trimmings and lined shoes are currently free of animal origin, the plastic is made from petroleum. Covation’s material is made from corn sugar and the company advertises that it should keep up in terms of coziness, durability and design options.

“Bio-based carbon sources have enormous potential,” says Markus Steilemann, CEO of Covestro. The plastics manufacturer intends to use more renewable raw materials in the coming years. But Steilemann warns: In the coming years, you will see rapid growth in individual products. But the big breakthrough will take decades.

There is undoubtedly already enough demand for companies that specialize in alternative raw materials. Potential customers from the packaging or consumer goods industry have set themselves ambitious targets for reducing the greenhouse gas emissions for which they are responsible. Purchasing green electricity alone is not enough: you also have to ensure a lower CO2 footprint in your supply chains.

For example, by 2030 all plastics used at Ikea should come from recycling or be based on renewable raw materials. The Swedes are currently selling about freezer bags made from sugar cane material. The consumer goods manufacturer Unilever also wants to produce its cleaning products without crude oil by 2030.

>> Read also: With these innovations, companies can save energy and CO2 in the future

During the conversion, the companies are dependent on the innovation departments of their suppliers. Essen-based Evonik has developed a new technology for detergent substances for Unilever. The surfactants used are not obtained from crude oil or tropical palm oil as is usually the case. They are based on a special sugar carbon.

competition with food production

Evonik supplies the outdoor specialist Vaude with a bio-based plastic made from castor oil. The process has proven itself on the market. Vaude now uses this product instead of petroleum-based yarns in a large part of its collection because they also convinced the company in terms of durability.

As innovative and sustainable as the processes appear, the material use of biomass is also met with criticism. The Freiburg Öko-Institut, for example, considers the availability to be limited because global cultivation areas are limited. In many cases there is competition for land, for example for the production of food. The key question is: does food production take precedence over growing crops for industrial use?

Scientist Michael Carus from the Nova Institute would like differentiated answers. In principle, he also expects that the use of biomass in industry will have limits because of the competition with food cultivation. “But it always depends on the area under cultivation and the type of plant,” he says.

The castor plant, for example, does not need to be fertilized or watered, it grows on dry land where conventional agriculture is hardly possible anyway. For industrial sugar cane, late harvests are used on areas that are not suitable for food sugar.

Nevertheless, entrepreneurs like Traceless boss Lamp see it as the best way to obtain the new raw materials from waste. The fry fat for the chemical plant in Wesseling also falls into this category. The Finnish Neste Group collects it in the catering trade and prepares it for material use in industry. The Finns have just made it to the finals of the European Inventor Award 2023 for their methods of creating a circular economy.

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