14 PROFESSOR CHRISTOF FRANCKE WORKS WITH ‘WASTE’ TO RESPOND TO LOOMING WORLD DISASTERS Christof Francke was officially installed as Professor in Biobased Innovations on Thursday 3 July 2025. He shares his ideas, talks about the special research projects and sounds the alarm. “Back in 1972, the Club of Rome warned for the consequences of economic growth and environmental pollution. But still too little is happening in the world. We’ve been idle for 50 years. While disasters and countless deaths await us if we do nothing now.” Christof Francke proclaims an alarming message as newly-installed professor in Biobased Innovations within the School of Applied Biosciences and Che- mistry. He’s not the first to sound the alarm and won't be the last either. "The challenges we face are of an exponential nature. And our reptilian brain can't handle that kind of phenomena. It’s not felt immediately, as nothing has changed the next day. So we always start to work on solutions much too late." To avoid world disasters, a resource transition is urgently needed, Francke teaches. The world currently runs on oil. This leads to CO2 emissions, which raise the earth's temperature, disrupt the ecosystem and jeopardize food production. All the while, the world's population is growing. "We must therefore move toward a circular, biobased economy." WHITE COATS AND DATA HAN's research group in Biobased Innovations, which Francke has headed for the past year, is making a small contribution to that enormous transition. Working with partners and students to develop and continue developing key technologies. This is done in a ‘wet lab’ (white coat and goggles) and a ‘dry lab’ (computers, software and data). The research focusses on the effective and circular use of organic streams to make food, raw materials and products. "Our main specialty is making something out of existing organic material", Francke explains. For example, used toilet paper is turned into resin that can be used in paint, bamboo is transformed into wood glue, and methane leaking from landfills is captured for plastic production. "We can reduce any natural material to the molecular level. From there we can make something again. And we can work out its composition by measuring it." MUSHROOM GROWER In another project, the composting of manure has been investigated for the growing of mushrooms, so that a yield prediction can be made based on the microorganisms present in the compost. "And why is that of interest to our school? The methodology we are developing to map what the as-yet-unknown microorganisms in the compost are doing and how they are changing can also be used more broadly. For soil health, for example. By looking at the biodiversity." In that respect, the mushroom compost research is symbolic of the projects that the research group is focusing on under Francke's leadership. "We support companies that are working toward a circular, biobased economy and, when selecting projects, we look critically at what additional knowledge they bring. Because knowledge development is key for us. We need to learn from it so we can then use the new knowledge more broadly." 10 YEARS OF BIOBASED RESEARCH Francke, meanwhile, has been with HAN for more than 10 years and is affiliated with HAN BioCentre.
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