The Socio-Economic Council (SER) advised the cabinet last month in its report ‘More chemistry between green and growth’ to ‘make a firm commitment to the development of the biobased economy’, in which the Netherlands can play a key role worldwide. With our highly developed agro and chemical industries we hold strong trumps internationally.
Wageningen University and Research Centre has accordingly worked out promising business concepts in a recent recommendation to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation (EL&I) to enable the Netherlands to pick up the reins.
The starting points are our leading position in selective plant breeding and the possibilities for creating links between the agro and chemical industries, since the world market leaders in the selective breeding of vegetables, ornamental plants and grasses are to be found in the Netherlands. We take advantage of this lead, because selective plant breeding is crucial for the transition from a petroleum-based to a biobased economy.
The business concepts that are put forward as promising in the Wageningen UR report, are promising because they generally satisfy a number of conditions:
- They must yield sufficient value added for Dutch business. The biomass need not be grown in the Netherlands per se, but money must be earned with it somewhere in the chain, preferably at the beginning of the production chain (seed production) or at the end (biorefinery)
- They must make a real contribution to climate objectives. The business case studies must yield a minimum of 250 GJ/ha in energy equivalents. This should preferably be energy in the form of green chemicals, which can replace energy-intensive petrochemicals
- They must possess the potential to derive more biomass per unit of resource (land and minerals) than is possible at present. Examples are maize with delayed flowering, or beets with an enhanced frost resistance. In both instances a 30% higher yield can be achieved with the same resources.
Promising business case studies include, for example, improved potato and sugar beet races with raw materials for plastics. Also promising are oils from marigold (calendula) and Abyssinian kale (crambe abyssinica) for use in paints, lubricants and wood preservation. Further, the breeding of algae has potential for bio fuels and bio plastics.
Such concepts give the Netherlands a very strategic position, because thanks to ‘breeders right’ the intellectual property right for plant races licence income flows back from wherever in the world the crops are grown. Besides acting as a nursery for biobased plant races, the chemicals industry can also further develop its expertise in refinery technology, so that the whole chain is developed.
But if we to wish to be among the front runners worldwide, we need a properly directed innovation policy. The chemical industry and selective plant breeding are still two separate worlds which do not speak each other’s language. The green objectives and visions exist on paper; now all the parties must take their joint responsibility and design the production chains to secure the raw material supplies for the future.
Andries Koops
Plant Research International