Abstract
With more than 40 countries currently proposing to boost their national bioeconomies, there is no better time for a clarion call for a "new" bioeconomy, which, at its core, tackles the current disparities and inequalities in phosphorus (P) availability. Existing biofuel production systems have widened P inequalities and contributed to a linear P economy, impairing water quality and accelerating dependence on P fertilizers manufactured from finite nonrenewable phosphate rock reserves. Here, we explore how the emerging bioeconomy in novel, value-added, bio-based products offers opportunities to rethink our stewardship of P. Development of integrated value chains of new bio-based products offers opportunities for codevelopment of "P refineries" to recover P fertilizer products from organic wastes. Advances in material sciences are exploiting unique semiconductor and opto-electrical properties of new "two-dimensional" (2D) P allotropes (2D black phosphorus and blue phosphorus). These novel P materials offer the tantalizing prospect of step-change innovations in renewable energy production and storage, in biomedical applications, and in biomimetic processes, including artificial photosynthesis. They also offer a possible antidote to the P paradox that our agricultural production systems have engineered us into, as well as the potential to expand the future role of P in securing sustainability across both agroecological and technological domains of the bioeconomy. However, a myriad of social, technological, and commercialization hurdles remains to be crossed before such an advanced circular P bioeconomy can be realized. The emerging bioeconomy is just one piece of a much larger puzzle of how to achieve more sustainable and circular horizons in our future use of P.
Highlights
With more than 40 countries currently proposing to boost their national bioeconomies, there is no better time for a clarion call for a “new” bioeconomy, which, at its core, tackles the current disparities and inequalities in phosphorus (P) availability
It is envisaged that the bioeconomy will provide eco-efficient production of renewable food and energy resources, meeting basic needs and delivering to the consumer healthcare and industrial products demanded by modern society
We explore here how the emerging bioeconomy, in novel value-added bio-based products, provides an opportunity to augment and rethink our stewardship of P, building on lessons learned from existing biofuel and livestock production systems and the need to address the current “paradox” of P deficits and P surpluses ( Jarvie et al, 2015; Sharpley et al, 2018)
Summary
With more than 40 countries currently proposing to boost their national bioeconomies, there is no better time for a clarion call for a “new” bioeconomy, which, at its core, tackles the current disparities and inequalities in phosphorus (P) availability. A major focus of the emerging bioeconomy is conversion of sustainably produced biomass, including crops (food, feed, and energy, lignocellulosic and algae) and organic waste materials (biosolids, manure, stover, food, and municipal organic wastes) into valueadded bio-based products: from biofuels to biochemicals to biobased polymers (Fig. 1).
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