Mar 11, 2011

Glossary

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Renewable raw materials

Organic raw materials from agriculture and forestry, aquaculture or microbial production that are not used for food or animal feed.

Renewable raw materials include wood, plant oils, plant fibres, sugars, and starch. These raw materials are used both for energy production and for material applications, e.g. for fuels, textile fibres, construction materials, paper, lubricants, plastics and drugs. In the broadest sense of the term, animal raw materials like wool and hide are also renewable raw materials.

Agriculture and forestry are the biggest producers of renewable raw materials. In 2010, crops were grown as renewable raw materials on over 2.1 million hectares in Germany (approx. 18 % of the total area of arable land). Most of this area (1.8 million ha) was used to grow energy crops. Oilseed rape is by far the most important energy crop. Over half of the rapeseed oil produced is either converted into biodiesel or used as plant oil fuel without any further chemical conversion.

Genetic engineering methods offer new possibilities for renewable raw materials. For instance, they are used to optimize existing metabolic pathways in plants and to produce new plant substances. Research is being carried out into potatoes that produce the raw material for a biodegradable plastic, and into wood that is better suited to paper manufacture. Trees for biofuel production and plants that produce drugs are also at the development stage.

The use of plants as renewable raw materials is not without controversy because there is intense competition between the use of arable land for food and for the production of renewable raw materials.