Biorefinery Concept of the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences

This article presents the circular-economy-based biorefinery concept developed by the “Biorefinery” research group at the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences. The biorefinery concept aims the holistic utilization of plant raw materials and residues, in orders to exploit their entire value creation potential. The material or energetic utilization of all parts of the plants or plant residues results in significant economic and ecological advantages compared to conventional recycling methods and commonly accepted utilization concepts. The biorefinery process of our research group also envisages feeding products made of or contanining natural fibers after their use to a novel recycling process using saprobionthic fungi. As a result of fungal recycling mycelium-based biocomposites are produced and provided for further applications, e.g. in the construction industry or as packaging material. In this way, carbon can be sequestered in the long term and CO2 emissions can be avoided.