The circular bioeconomy: Its elements and role in European bioeconomy clusters

#Circulareconomy, #Bioeconomy, #Cascading, #Biomass, #Resource-efficiency, #Climate change

Biomass is projected to play a key role in meeting global climate targets. To achieve a resource-efficient biomass use, European bioeconomy strategies increasingly consider the concept of a circular bioeconomy (CBE). The analysed bioeconomy clusters move towards a CBE by increasingly considering residues and wastes as a resource, developing integrated biorefineries and focusing more on material and high value applications of biomass. While the CBE could contribute to improving the sustainability of the bioeconomy, the concept is not inherently sustainable, and its potential trade-offs need to be addressed. Especially social aspects, cascading, circular product design, and aspects related to product use seem to be underrepresented in CBE literature, while the topics biorefinery, wastes and residues as well as waste management are significantly covered.

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Authors: Paul Stegmann, Marc Londo, Martin Junginger