Lecture: Fachagentur Nachwachsende Rohstoffe with Nicole Paul
02.04.2024, Halle (Saale)
In a video conference with Nicole Paul from FNR, we gained insights into plants as sustainable material suppliers. Founded in 1993, FNR is a project managemaent agency of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) and focuses on research, development, and demonstration projects in the field of renewable resources. They plan and manage federal funding programs, collect and process specialized information, and inform the federal and state governments, industry, agriculture, forestry, and consumers about renewable resources. In the video conference, we learned that 17 % of agricultural land in Germany is used for renewable resources. Germany imports twice as many renewable resources as it cultivates domestically. Ms. Paul’s data on useful plants specifically refer to agricultural cultivation and not forestry yields. She emphasized the importance of rapeseed for energy and fuel, with production residues being used as animal feed. Other important crops are maize and potatoes for starch, which represent a significant industrial use. Fiber plants (hemp, flax, nettle) are cultivated to a lesser extent for producing textiles, insulation, and plastics. Plant-based dyes and active ingredients play a minor role in German agriculture. Exceptions are small projects like the cultivation of chamomile, calendula, and St. John’s wort. Ms. Paul highlighted the potential of mixed crops, alternative energy plants like the silphium, substitutes for peat and lignite, and biobased plastics. She also mentioned paludiculture, which, despite being monoculture, is rich in biodiversity but has become rarer due to soil drainage. She emphasized the potential of using reeds and lignin. Example projects include WetNetBB (management and biomass utilization of wet peatlands) and BioSinn (biodegradable products based on renewable resources).
thanks to: | Nicole Paul from FNR |
project: | The Plant Project – Resilience Part II |
year: | 2024 |
text by: | Hannah Tuchel |