On 4 and 5 June 2024, around 160 exhibitors from business and technology, research and science as well as civil society will present their innovative solutions for responsibly shaping change as part of the Week of the Environment in the park of Schloss Bellevue. We are delighted to be among the exhibitors this year on the topic of "Products from reeds & co - value creation from rewetted peatland sites for the bioeconomy".
The Week of the Environment is organised by the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU) and is open to interested members of the public. Please register for this event:
Products from reeds & co - value creation from rewetted peatland sites for the bioeconomy
Peatlands are among the largest carbon reservoirs on earth. At 450 gigatonnes, they store more carbon than the entire global forest stock. In many places, however, peatlands have been drained on a large scale in order to make the land usable for agriculture. As a result, the carbon stored there is released - around 53 million tonnes of CO2 per year in Germany. The rewetting of these areas is therefore of central importance for achieving climate protection targets.
Innovative ideas for the economic utilisation of biomass from paludiculture are needed to ensure that the switch to peatland-friendly or peatland-preserving management is successful and that farmers who cultivate peatland sites have economic prospects for the future. Value creation opportunities from paludibiomass for the bioeconomy are therefore the focus of projects such as WetNetBB (funding: BMEL, duration: 2023-2032), Edelnass (BMEL, 2023-2026), BluMo (BMUV, 2022-2031), PaludiKult (MLUK BB, 2021-2024) and MarginUp! (EU, 2022-2026). Among other things, the ATB uses its expertise in the field of technology and process development for agroforestry systems and fibre extraction from hemp or nettle, for example, to develop innovative solutions for the special raw material-specific requirements of plant species such as sedges, rushes, reeds, reed canary grass and other crops.
Paludibiomass can be processed into a wide variety of sustainable products. We present innovative products made from paludibiomass, including ecological building materials, peat substitutes for soil substrates, moulded fibre parts, paper, packaging and forms of energy use such as anaerobic fermentation to produce biogas. We provide information on the potential of paludibiomass as an alternative bioresource, the technical challenges involved in processing it and the unique synergies of peatland conservation for climate, soil, water and biodiversity protection and regional value creation.