Can sugar save the planet? Sugar beet as renewable resource for the production of bio-fuels or bio-plastics

Abstract

The use of fossil sources has caused environmental problems like climate change and plastic pollution. Political decisions insist on the use of alternative energy carriers. Besides sun, wind and water, biomass from plants can be used for this. Research is currently being focused on the possibilities to use crops like sugar beet, maize and wheat for the production of biofuels and bioplastics. The thick juice produced during sugar processing of sugar beet can be converted into ethanol that can be used in its entirety or in mixtures in petrol engines. Waste generated along the food chain of sugar beet can be transformed into chemical building blocks to produce bioplastics. Important will be to not compete with its use in food supply. Whether sugar beet could be interesting as feedstock for alternative applications will be determined by the feedstock price the industry has to pay and the competition with other raw materials. The economic value of its products and by-products will determine whether sugar beet will be grown and harvested in the future for this purpose. Since 2017 the European sugar world has been liberalized. This led to an overproduction of European sugar. Together with an overproduction at world level, the world price of sugar collapsed. If the declining sugar price approximates the price of raw materials such as fossil fuels, sugar beet might be a possible resource for the production of biofuel and bioplastic in the future and will be able to contribute to environmental issues in this way.