Biol230

After a week of laying the groundwork with lecture series and group work, the first excursion took the students to the Jeske fish farm in Oeversee. Mr. Jeske explained and showed them his breeding ponds and told the eight students about the challenges his company is currently facing. On the path to a more sustainable circular economy, there are many regulatory, technical, and social hurdles to overcome.

Another excursion took us to Felde, where the Schierbecker company operates as an innovative transshipment point for agricultural waste and by-products. The variety of “waste” products, which can hardly be described as such, are sometimes put to unusual uses. We are eager to see how this condensation point develops!

In the summer heat, one of our paths also led us to the Kiel Beach Factory, which on that day was literally a melting pot for sustainable project ideas. There we learned that fungal mycelium could potentially replace composite materials and polystyrene (Hypherblanks), that seaweed is suitable as a building material (ReMatter), why saunas should be recycled and turned into swimming pools (Rune Sauna), and much more.

Fortunately, almost everything in Kiel is very close to the sea, so we even had time to cool our feet in the Baltic Sea. On the beach, we discovered wild sea kale, which we had already learned so much about. In the HaFF project, for example, experimental cultivation is being undertaken for the purpose of bioremediation.

At the end, the pairs presented their own bioeconomic ideas and showed what connections they had learned and understood.

After all, there are so many factors that matter in the bioeconomy: knowledge of cycles, economic efficiency, sustainability, and social acceptance. Attention to the most important blue elements was sharpened and a basic understanding of the blue bioeconomy was created.

Next year, the next cohort will enter the second season of the new module!