THE ROLE OF BIOGENIC WASTE AND RESIDUES IN A CLIMATE NEUTRAL WORLD

Germany aims to become climate-neutral by 2045. This will require us to significantly reduce consumption of materials and energy, and to become a more sustainable society in general: climate neutrality is based on two main pillars, an energy supply based entirely on renewables (wind, solar, bioenergy, geothermal energy, and hydropower) and a transformation of today’s mainly linear economy to a truly circular one. Both transformations are still in their infancy not just at global scale, but Germany also has a long way to go as yet. CO2 sinks (negative emissions) will therefore be needed as well. In supplying industry with organic raw materials, the key challenge is to shift from petro-based to bio-based, circular (recycled) carbon sources. It will be essential to use biogenic wastes and residues for materials and energy in an optimal way – and this exactly is one major focus of work of the DBFZ, the German institute for biomass research, located in Leipzig, in close cooperation especially with University of Rostock. This article summarises how biogenic wastes and residues are currently used for material and energy in Germany, and which developments are required in order to achieve the abovementioned transformation.