Conserving resources in production - breaking new ground

Over the last few decades, the systematic approach of knowledge transfer from biological concept generators to technical applications has received increasing attention, particularly because marketable bio-derived developments are often described as sustainable. The objective of this paper is to rationalize and refine the discussion about bio-derived developments also with respect to sustainability by taking descriptive, normative and emotional aspects into consideration. In the framework of supervised learning, a dataset of 70 biology-derived and technology-derived developments characterised by 9 different attributes together with their respective values and assigned to one of 17 classes was created. On the basis of the dataset a decision tree was generated which can be used as a straightforward classification tool to identify biology-derived and technology-derived developments. The validation of the applied learning procedure achieved an average accuracy of 90.0%. Additional extraordinary qualities of technical applications are generally discussed by means of selected biology-derived and technology-derived examples with reference to normative (contribution to sustainability) and emotional aspects (aesthetics and symbolic character). In the Many approaches focus on more efficient production processes, on avoiding waste and scrap and on more efficient use/operation of products within one life cycle, i.e. from raw materials to the end of use. All these approaches share the goal of an increase in resource efficiency. In contrast, the reProd® approach is characterized by a comprehensive view of cycles. By shortening the cycle process, a huge potential can be opened up for metal products regarding a reduction of energy requirements and CO2 emissions. Approx. 70% to 90% of the energy requirements and also of the greenhouse gas emissions are necessary for melting the metals and for the first processing stage. If secondary semi-finished products are obtained from used goods, energy-intensive processes are eliminated. Thus a decisive contribution for the energy turnaround and for protecting climate and environment lies in "non-destructive recycling" and "re-use without melting".