Renewable resources

Abstract

Since the 1990s, a new awareness of the finite nature of fossil resources and the need to diversify raw material resources has led to a sharp increase in research and development in the field of renewable resources in Europe and North America. There has consequently been a significant rise in the cultivation of plants that are not used by the food or feed industry but in energetic or industrial processes. In 2007, over 2% of the world's agricultural land was being used to grow renewable raw materials. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.