Bioeconomy, that emerged at the dawn of the 21st century, is focused on production of energy, food and raw material supplies from renewable sources, moving away from the current dependency on fossil fuels and their derivatives. Renewable bio-sources can be transformed into bioproducts that comprise a wide range of industrial and commercial goods described by a variety of properties, compositions and processes. They encompass bioenergy, biomaterials, bioplastics, biopharmaceuticals, biocosmetics, biochemicals, bio-based food and feed ingredients. The processes used to produce bioproducts from biomass exploit mechanical, chemical, biochemical and thermochemical procedures. The bio-waste can be transformed from a cost into a resource due to bioeconomy approaches. There is a growing acknowledgment of the benefits of using wastes and residues as feedstock. Municipal Solid Waste streams can also be converted into liquid biofuels or used for heat and power generation. Thus, innovations in bio-sourced products, bioprocesses and other side-streams offer tremendous potential for adoption of clean technologies that will be used to design and manufacture innovative products in new and different ways.

Anna Kujumdzieva, Ventsislava Petrova (R&D Center Biointech Ltd)