Planned biouse
Is there any substance we can use to make anything from ice cream and chocolate to batteries, clothes and cement? The answer is actually yes – a tree trunk!
Trees and other so-called biomass are a fantastic resource. They can not only be used to generate environmentally-friendly energy. The Borregaard company in Sarpsborg, Norway specialises in getting as much as possible out of tree trunks before the last bits go to produce heat. For example, from a tree trunk they can manufacture environmentally-friendly biofuel which can replace polluting petrol and diesel. 20 of Oslo’s local buses already run on ethanol from Borregaard. The company also makes ingredients for paints, which otherwise would have been produced from oil, as well as heat which can replace dirty oil-based heating. Another product they make is vanilla, a flavouring used in ice cream and chocolate.
Much of this would otherwise have been produced with the aid of oil. All plastic products use carbon as a building block. Today, plastic is made mainly from fossil-based materials such as oil, but in the future it can be made from biomass.