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Potentials of plant-based feedstocks

The overall goal of using renewable resources for industrial (material) applications and energy production is to utilise all plant components economically and implement the concept of a whole plant utilisation also called “Koppelproduktion” (co-production) which includes the use of plant by-products and residues. Plants provide a wide range of raw materials and biomass. Depending on the intended use, the availability of plant raw material and the applied processing method, the plant can be fractionated into several components, mechanically or with the help of a bio-refinery. The resulting products can be very different depending on the processing method.

In addition to using the whole plant, cascade use is another principle of our work. Within the production process the potential of heat and energy cycling is used for the economic benefit of a wide range of industries. Innovative technologies already enable parallel material and energy applications of the plant raw material.

Banana plantation

Banana pseudo stems

Miscanthus harvest

Miscanthus

Agricultural residues

Plants as basis for industry

Babussa nut

In addition to common renewable plants many agricultural crops offer a very large potential with regard to plant residues or wastes. In our company, we are currently working together with our customers to develop value chains for bast fibre plants (hemp, stinging nettle, flax, etc.), for different residues from agriculture (for example banana fibre, pineapple fibre) and for plant oils. The applications range from textiles in the apparel industry and in composite materials to coatings and natural fibre plastic granules and building materials.