The STAR-ProBio 4th newsletter has been published!
You can read it here, or click here to download it as PDF.
The STAR-ProBio 4th newsletter has been published!
You can read it here, or click here to download it as PDF.
STAR-ProBio is organising (jointly with the LIFECAB project) its 2nd international workshop, which will take place within the 24th edition of the EURAS Conference in Rome on the 14th of June.
Click here to download the agenda of the event.
The updated version of the Italian bioeconomy strategy has just been published!
Among other things, the document highlights the importance of promoting the use of sustainability standards, certification schemes and labels to support the bio-based market and the creation of a ‘level playing field’ between bio-based products and conventional products.
In this regard, the strategy explicitly refers to STAR-ProBio and the work it is conducting. A great result for our project!
Click here to download the updated version of the document.
A 3-day meeting took place in Leipzig to achieve the results expected within the WP7. The participants from Unibo, DBFZ, TUB, ECOS, USC and UWM worked together on how to assess the ILUC risk of bio-based products, define mitigation options to reduce it and identify a proper methodology for policy recommendations.
Pine (Pinus oocarpa) wood has great economic importance in Brazil. Pine stands represent the second largest reforested area in the country due to their industrial interest. Combining the relevance of industrial pine stands in the country and corresponding environmental concerns, this current study aims to identify and quantify the environmental impacts derived from industrial pine roundwood production in Brazil. The environmental study was developed considering the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology according to ISO14040 framework. The study convers the life cycle of pine roundwood production from cradle-to-forest gate perspective and considers the current practices in the country. The production system was divided in five main stages: Soil preparation, seedlings plantation, forest management, forest harvesting and infrastructure establishment. The environmental profile was estimated considering characterization factors from the ReCiPe method, in terms of twelve impact categories. According to the results, forest harvesting stage was identified as the environmental hotspot being the main responsible of contributions to nine impact categories under assessment with contributing ratios ranging from 21% (e.g., freshwater eutrophication) to 76% (e.g., photochemical oxidants formation). The high amount of fossil fuel required by heavy machinery used in the activities involved in this stage is behind this result. Soil preparation stage reported also an outstanding contribution in categories such as freshwater eutrophication (37%) and toxicity related categories (≈35%). The rationale behind these contributions is associated with the use of chemical fertilizers, mostly superphosphate. The identification of the environmental hotspots in forest biomass production can assist the Brazilian forest practitioners to improve the environmental profile by means of the optimization of forest practices.
Click here to read the article.
The use of vine shoots as feedstock in biorefining activities to obtain bioproducts under efficient and optimized conditions could be crucial to make future high added value compounds and processes more sustainable. In this study, five different potential valorization scenarios from vine shoots differing on diverse extraction and delignification steps were assessed from an environmental perspective using the Life Cycle Assessment methodology to identify the most sustainable biorefining route. The main findings from this study reported that an increment on the number of valorization steps involved higher energy and chemical requirements deriving on worse environmental profiles. Scenarios incorporating fermentation of the glucose liquors or organosolv delignification performed the worst profiles. Autohydrolysis, concentration and freeze drying and enzymatic hydrolysis were the main responsible stages of the environmental burdens. Further research should be focused on optimizing chemicals and electricity requirements to develop greener systems.
The concept of the bio-based economy has gained increasing attention and importance in recent years. It is seen as a chance to reduce the dependency on fossil resources while securing a sustainable supply of energy, water, and raw materials, and furthermore preserving soils, climate and the environment. The intended transformation is characterized by economic, environmental and social challenges and opportunities, and it is understood as a social transition process towards a sustainable, bio-based and nature-oriented economy. This process requires general mechanisms to establish and monitor safeguards for a sustainable development of the bio-based economy on a national and EU level. Sustainability certification and standardisation of bio-based products can help to manage biogenic resources and their derived products in a sustainable manner. In this paper, we have analysed the current status of sustainability certification and standardisation in the bio-based economy by conducting comprehensive desktop research, which was complemented by a series of expert interviews. The analysis revealed an impressive amount of existing certification frameworks, criteria, indicators and applicable standards. However, relevant gaps relating to existing criteria sets, the practical implementation of criteria in certification processes, the legislative framework, end-of-life processes, as well as necessary standardisation activities, were identified which require further research and development to improve sustainability certification and standardisation for a growing bio-based economy.
Click here to read the article.