The Bio-Revolution, European biosolutions boosting the EU Green Deal

Europe is on the cusp of a technological revolution. Unlike the Industrial Revolution’s massive factories, the bio-revolution centres around micro-factories. Biosolutions represent the fusion of biology and technology, offering powerful tools to address climate change.

Biosolutions leverage natural microorganisms and processes, like fermentation, which have been employed for centuries – but now their use is being accelerated to meet Europe’s Green Deal targets, enhancing biodiversity preservation, environmental protection, and ensuring food security.

In essence, biosolutions work by inputting a compound like an organic carbon (such as sugar) or biomass (from crops or waste); then adding microorganisms such as bacteria and yeast, which process the input through fermentation.

There may be an enhancement such as genetic engineering which boosts the microorganisms’ capabilities for precision and output. And finally, an output is achieved resulting in valuable products like proteins (for human or animal consumption), ethanol (for energy), sustainable enzymes, new materials, and biodegradable sidestreams (used as feed or fertilizers) emerge.

Co-author of ‘Building food and agriculture businesses for a green future’, Tom Brennan, a partner at McKinsey & Company, outlined to EURACTIV how the European biosolutions sector is contributing to the EU’s Green Deal targets, he said “Biosolutions have impact on the hectare and downstream of the hectare in the agriculture value chain. On the hectare, there are three broad product classes demonstrating the potential benefits of biosolutions.”

Brennan explained that the first product class is improved seeds, created by leveraging next-generation genomics and biotechnology. Secondly, he said ‘biocontrol’ products as an alternative to synthetic chemical pesticides to reduce pest pressures on crops, thereby securing yield; and thirdly, biostimulant (and biofertilizer) products that can improve crop resilience, such as against drought, and nutrient use efficiency – a critical tool for getting the most out of fertilizer applied on the hectare.

EU’s ‘Biotech and Biomanufacturing Initiative’

In a Letter of Intent to the European Parliament, following her 2023 State of The Union, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made the EU Biotech and Biomanufacturing Initiative one of the EU’s Key Priorities for 2024, under the Commission’s ambitions for an “Economy that Works for People”.

Euronews has reported on a leaked document indicating the European Commission is preparing a strategy designating biotech as “one of the critical technologies for the EU’s economic security.” The initiatives’ objectives will be to strengthen research and development, facilitate marketing of biotech products and solutions, and to bolster the EU’s economic security.

A spokesperson for the European Commission told EURACTIV: “Biosolutions can contribute to the achievement of the European Green Deal, as well as the Farm to Fork strategy, and we encourage their development.”

They remarked that the “Bioeconomy supports the Green Deal objectives by turning climate and environmental challenges into opportunities. Circular approaches support the green transition by identifying win-win solutions and developing innovative business models for farmers and other rural entrepreneurs.”

The Commission spokesperson acknowledged the significant importance of biotechnology, they said: “… along with clean technology and deep and digital technology, it is among the three primary areas that the recently agreed Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP) will support.”

Biosolutions boosting Farm to Fork

Bio-based fertilisers can contribute to the Farm to Fork objectives and contribute to the availability and affordability of fertilisers by providing bio-based alternatives to farmers with similar or even improved properties. The recycling of nutrients from nutrient-rich waste and side-streams also offers great opportunities to diversify and enhance rural incomes.

Research and innovation projects supported by the European Union include RUSTICA, FERTIMANURE, Nutri2Cycle, LEX4BIO, B-Ferst or SEA2LAND, all of which aim to develop innovative solutions to convert secondary resources into novel bio-based fertiliser products.

LEX4BIO, for example, is focused on BBFs which will have an increasingly important role in future food production. By optimising the use of nutrient-rich side-streams like manure and sewage sludge as BBFs in agriculture, European dependency on imported fertilisers can be reduced.

This comes at a critical time for Europe’s farmers as soaring energy prices and the Russian war in Ukraine have forced fertilizer prices to rise, while creating a European dependence on cheaper Russian fertilisers when sanctions could have already been implemented.

Food insecurity and climate change

Food insecurity and an expanding global population is a critical problem. According to the UN, more than 250 million people faced severe hunger during 2022 – an increase of 65 million compared to the year before. To address this urgent need, a new consortium funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Novo Nordisk Foundation, aims to convert CO2 to a substrate which is subsequently fermented to food proteins – the aim is to use fermentation to produce food.

The consortium combines knowledge and expertise from Novozymes A/S and Topsoe A/S, two leading companies within biotechnology and chemical engineering, Washington University, and the Novo Nordisk Foundation CO2 Research Centre (CORC) at Aarhus University.

Biosolutions are can also mitigate food insecurity when deployed for protein diversification. In October last year, EIT Food, which is supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), launched a new policy brief on protein diversification – Accelerating Protein Diversification for Europe – it presents a series of policy recommendations aimed at accelerating progress towards a transformative shift in how we produce and consume protein.

Biogas and methane

There is also strong potential for biosolutions supporting the Green Deal by maximising agricultural waste streams to produce biogas or biomethane, leading to a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and at the same time produce bio-based fertilisers to close the nutrient cycle and enhance soil fertility.

In addition, the deployment of (small-scale on-farm) biorefineries to convert agricultural biomass is resulting in a range of new high-value products, such as cosmetics, chemicals, or food ingredients.

Investment opportunity

When it comes to investing in biosolutions, McKinsey & Company’s Brennan told EURACTIV, biosolutions have seen significant interest from venture and private equity investors and established industry players.

Brennan remarked how “Concepts that have seen a lot of excitement include biofertilizer products applied on the hectare with microbes that can fix nitrogen from the air (reducing the need for synthetic fertilizer) and, downstream of the hectare, fermentation-driven technologies that can use microbes to turn biomass into a wide range of end products.”

In terms of EU funding, since 2014, the European Commission has been funding large-scale demonstration and flagship projects through the Circular Bio-Based Europe partnership (CBE JU), underpinned by innovative biotechnological processes, to develop novel, improved, sustainable products and bring them closer to the market.

Biosolutions investment support is also underpinned with the European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund which focuses on deep-tech technologies and biosolutions is among the supported ones.

Since the inception of the EIC Fund in 2020, more than 15 companies providing biosolutions, from countries such as Belgium, Denmark, France Germany, Italy, or Poland have been considered for investment. Demeta or B4Plastic.

The fund provides “patient capital” in the form of equity or quasi-equity to breakthrough innovation start-ups SMEs, selected through the highly competitive EIC Accelerator. The Commission said the fund aims at “achieving impact while crowding in other mainly private investors.”

Cover photo: European Biosolutions [Shutterstock / Chokniti-Studio]