Fostering the transition to a green economy
The Hub of North Netherlands is developing new economic perspectives for the region with the transition into a new green economy. The focus is on the development of new energies based on hydrogen power and on the production of bioplastics, both from local biomass as from recycled plastics. Within the Chemport cluster, the North of The Netherlands has the potential to valorise different fibres and sugar rich biomass resources from (rest material from) regional arable farming, into building blocks for the biochemical industries. Within the cluster of Chemport Emmen, which has a focus on the sustainable polymer innovations, the building blocks can be processed into bioplastics.
In the North of the Netherlands main players in the network of bioeconomy are triple helix partners from province and municipalities, the educational and research institutes and representatives of the business community from developing agencies, business parcs and cluster organizations. This network meets often and has created technological innovations, which are actually being processed through the innovation pipeline; some already reach towards TRL7 (Technology readiness level). The region is building facilities which support this technological development. The regional sourcing of biomass and the actual volumes of biobased production lines is still very limited. The social readiness of greening the economy and the awareness of the characteristics of biobased products is also rather limited. This is the starting point for BLOOM activities.
BLOOM will align with the current network and will contribute to reach out for the general public to discuss the perspectives and to create outreach materials. The regional partners of the Dutch Hub are mobilising participants for the first co-creation workshop, which is planned to take place in the beginning of April 2019. The plastic problem and the potentials to develop alternatives in North of the Netherlands will be the central subject in this workshop.
