Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences (SATW)
2015
The current price of oil lessens the urgency of replacing fossil with renewable base materials. Yet due to oil’s finite nature, one day this replacement will become inevitable. Addressing this issue today, launching and intensifying research and development activities, therefore represents a major opportunity for Switzerland. Thanks to its academic institutions, its existing infrastructure and its industry, the country is starting from a good position despite difficult economic framework conditions.
The new SATW brochure “Renewable instead of fossil resources – An opportunity for Switzerland” describes the current state of technology as regards the production of basic materials, active substances and reusables. It makes the distinction between quasi-available technologies and processes as yet only existing at a conceptual level. It also addresses the necessary and promising industrial combination of biotechnology and chemistry. The survey ends with biorefineries, which in Switzerland have not yet moved beyond the conceptual stage. The brochure closes with a brief list of conclusions and four recommendations, which one can only hope will meet with constructive interest within industry, politics and the population at large, so that this “opportunity for Switzerland” may truly be seized.
