For the first time, the numerous flows of renewable raw materials and processing in the Flemish economy have been mapped and their economic value for Flanders has been estimated. The study was carried out by ILVO and VITO at the request of Flemish Minister Jo Brouns and his predecessor, both responsible for Work, Economy, Innovation & Agriculture.
The annual repetition of this study makes it possible to implement a targeted, stimulating policy and to evaluate its impact. The B2BE Facilitator, the platform that was founded a year ago to link suppliers of raw materials to potential processors, can also optimize operations with the data from the extensive study.
Flemish Minister of Work, Economy, Innovation & Agriculture Jo Brouns: “The transition to a sustainable and bio-based economy is essential. In this way we avoid waste and fossil raw materials while converting the valuable components from organic material into materials, foodstuffs, medicines, etc.”
The study by ILVO and VITO shows that there is a lot of interest in the Flemish economy to make that switch. The bio-based economy grew twice as fast as the general Flemish economy between 2014 and 2018. Moreover, the chemical sector, which traditionally relies heavily on fossil raw materials, appears to be the second largest consumer of biomass after the food industry. Jo Brouns: “With the Flemish bioeconomy policy plan, we are further building bridges between these sectors and strengthening our technical know-how. A real win-win situation for Flanders, for the sectors and for society.”
Renewable raw materials?
Renewable raw materials or biomass mainly come from agriculture, but also from forestry, landscape management, fisheries, aquaculture and the waste and residual flows from processing processes. In the bio-based economy, often referred to as the bioeconomy for short, this organic material is converted into all kinds of products such as food and materials, but also semi-finished products such as isolated molecules and renewable raw materials.
Agriculture is by far the largest biomass producer
It is striking that the forestry, fishing and waste processing sectors produce only 2% of the biomass in Flanders. Their share is negligible compared to the biomass production by Flemish agriculture and horticulture (98%). This sector produces 46 Mton of biomass main streams on 21% of our land area, the majority of which is vegetable (70%) and another 21 Mton of so-called biomass side streams, largely in the form of animal manure (82%).
The report provides a detailed overview of these main and secondary flows per producing sector.
Chemicals largest non-food processor
The processing sectors and their biomass and product flows are more difficult to map and will be further explored in the next editions of the monitoring. This roughly concerns the food sectors including drinks, feed, oil and fats; textiles, paper, wood, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, plastics, bioenergy and waste processing.
The food industry remains the most important buyer of biomass from agriculture and horticulture. A nuance here is that certain sectors that fall under the food industry do not always (only) produce food. An example is the oil industry that produces oil for food and technical applications.
After the food industry, the chemical sector emerges prominently as a customer. This uses biomass to produce large volumes of monocarboxylic fatty acids, fertilizers, bioethanol and biodiesel. However, the chemical sector is still largely dependent on fossil raw materials and is therefore a 'hybrid' bio-economic sector.
Economically performing and strongly growing sector
Economically, the Flemish bioeconomy performed well in 2018. The food sector creates the largest added value, turnover and employment. The bio-based pharmaceutical sector has the highest labor productivity (€450k/employee). In relative terms, the Flemish bio-economic sectors are all doing significantly better than the European average and often also better than our neighboring countries. In the field of agriculture, Flanders should only be followed by the Netherlands.
In the period 2014-2018, the added value of these sectors also increased sharply, with the beverage sector as the main outlier (70%). The food, wood and bio-based pharmaceutical sectors also experienced strong growth. The total Flemish economy did well in that period, but the Flemish bioeconomy did more than twice as well.
We are looking forward to the figures from 2020 to evaluate the effects of the corona crisis and the war in Ukraine. International trade is also of great importance for the Flemish bioeconomy.
Demand exceeds supply: the highest bidder wins?
This study makes it clear that the demand for biomass in Flanders far exceeds the supply. It is therefore important to consciously choose for which applications the valuable biomass is used. One useful framework for this is the principle of closed materials cycles. The aim is to use as little 'new' primary biomass as possible by making products last as long as possible through reuse and recycling. A second framework is the cascade principle, in which first human food, then feed and lastly energy production is considered a useful application for biomass.
VITO researcher Dieter Cuypers: “In reality, however, you see economic logic at play in the free market: the highest bidder wins and that is not necessarily the most sustainable. Every project must be evaluated critically and with a systemic lens, so that investments in the bioeconomy effectively contribute to a more sustainable world.”
It is important not to focus one-sidedly on climate and on replacing fossil raw materials with any biomass, but to look at all valuable components that the various biomass flows contain and choose the most useful valorization path. Dieter Cuypers (VITO): “Today there is a lot of interest in biofuel and bioplastics on the market, but from the point of view of biomass, these are not the most interesting applications. Biomass is a broad concept and, chemically speaking, contains a wealth of interesting atoms. You have carbon but also protein, phosphorus, nitrogen, etc. It is a shame to reduce that wealth to carbon atoms for biofuel and plastics.”
Monitoring 2018 and 2019
In 2020, the Flemish Government launched the Flemish bioeconomy policy plan, which should accelerate the development of this young sector in Flanders. In order to implement a stimulating policy based on figures, the competent department of Economy, Science and Innovation (EWI) commissioned VITO and ILVO to monitor developments in the bioeconomy. The report that is now providing information is a baseline measurement based on figures from the year 2018. It uses official sources and statistics, supplemented with sector-specific information if it became available and released.
The overview is not complete and some processes or flows need to be further explored. This will happen in the annual updates for which ILVO as executor and the B2BE Facilitator as client will be responsible. Work is now underway on the 2019 monitoring and the focus will be on more accurately unraveling the flows in and out of the chemicals, plastics sector and bio-based pharmaceuticals.
Consult the report.
Source: ILVO
