The workshop was dedicated to the further use of agricultural residues and the exploitation of residues from processing agricultural resources.
The workshop consisted of two parts: the first part was a series of presentations and discussions on the state of play regarding bioeconomy in Austria and its role for small structured regions, the utilization and conversion of residues to fertilizers and soil auxiliaries in order to enhance agricultural production in a sustainable way (composting and carbon fixation), the production of biobased colors from elderberries and other fruits and the utilization of the residues from the main process for other purposes.
The workshop started with an impulse presentation on the state of bioeconomy in the EU and in Austria and the presentation of the ENABLING BBP project by Manfred Hotwagner (EEE).
Prof. Pfeifer from the University of Life Sciences in Vienna gave a presentation of the state of art regarding the research on biobased fertilizers and the concepts of bio-refineries, with a focus on carbon fixation in soils.
Mr Werderitsch is a farmer and composter, processing organic household waste in cooperation with the public waste disposal company of the region, turning it into high value fertilizers.
Mr Winkelbauer, manager of Vulcolor GmbH gave a presentation on the activities of the company. Vulcolor is processing fruits with high contents of anthocyans and betanin and turn them into colours which are mainly used in the food industry. The presentation included also the already implemented utilization of the residues from the production process, which are mainly the seeds of the fruits. The oil of the seeds (app. 30% of biomass) couldn´t be used for food purposes because of inedible but not venomous contents. Now the company is building up a collaboration with an enterprise active in biocosmetics, which have a demand for oils with certain contents which can be almost all found in elderberry oil. Other residues are already registered in the Austrian catalogue of accredited surcharge materials for organic farming.
The following discussion round was dominated by the topic of adequate land use for various resources and business concepts and the necessity to stabilize soil productivity in order to serve the demands of the biobased industry in a sustainable way, since most of the participants are expecting higher pressure on land use, because not all the demands can be met by waste and residue utilization. The second part of the workshop was marked by the factory visit tour in the Vulcolor company, with a focus on the residue treatment and the planned processing of the residues to create value added from transforming them into biobased products for further use.
Workshop organised and conducted together with “Ländliches Fortbildungsinstitut der Landwirtschaftskammer Österreich” (Rural Eduction Institute of the Agricultural Chamber Austria”. New contacts with University for Life Sciences Vienna, Institute for Process technology of renewable Resources (Prof. C. Pfeifer).
The main outcome was, that there is currently almost no information on the concepts of bio-economy and bio-based products in the small structured agricultural sector of the regions in east Austria, and that therefore further input is necessary to raise the necessary awareness on the part of farmers as well as on the part of SMEs, since there is also a big demand on creating infrastructural and logistic networks.