New processing concepts and cluster technologies: catalysts for a faster and more efficient transition to using biobased carbon materials in a circular bioeconomy

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INTRODUCTION
The transition to a circular bioeconomy is an important and complex task facing many governments and organizations (1). Our previous study, Transitioning to a Circular Bioeconomy: Key Drivers and the New Cluster Technologies to Accelerate Process Development in Biotechnology Sectors, (2) provided a broad overview of the problems that the global community needs to address; among them the rapidly developing concern over the supply of raw materials and related environmental issues. After describing general challenges such as the loss of finite resources including metals and fossil carbon, (3) pollution caused by manufacturing waste, single use plastic and fabric waste, (4) and the increasing production of global warming gases, it went on to outline how a transition to the circular economy would help. It described the subset of issues related to circular bioeconomy and the many technology issues that will need to be solved to transition away from the use of fossil carbon for materials production. Of the two general methods discussed to provide the needed materials in the circular bioeconomy, the biotech vision (organisms genetically modified to produce needed materials) and the bioresource vision (carbon-based products would be produced from existing biomass sources), (5) the presentation focused on the bioresource vision as a promising avenue for the transition to the circular bioeconomy. It further introduced cluster technologies (interconnected companies, specialized suppliers, service providers, and firms in related industries and institutions that compete but also cooperate) (6) as one application for realizing the bioresource vision by addressing issues of resource efficiency through geographical proximity and increased knowledge transfers (2, p. 17).