A number of materials, such as colours, plastics and medicines, are produced on a large scale from plants and herbs instead of oil, coal and gas. German expert and researcher Hermann Fischer believes that chemicals will depend on natural plants in the future, and their cost will be lower and their effect more effective.
Oil prices are rising day after day, which is doubly harmful to the chemical industry sector, because it depends primarily on oil. However, sixty-year-old German chemistry researcher Hermann Fischer believes that the chemical industry sector will, in the future, move towards dispensing with petroleum and replacing it with plant sources.
In 1983, Fisher contributed to establishing a company to produce dyeing materials from natural sources, which produces dyeing colors from plants and minerals. The annual turnover of that company reaches seven million euros. Fisher confirms that he does not use oil or coal in his products, as yellow dye, for example, is produced from the lavender plant, which grows in the city of Tübingen in eastern Germany, and from aluminum oxide only.
Weeds and plants grow in nature every year in large quantities, making it possible to abandon petroleum, natural gas and coal as raw materials, according to Fisher, who does not doubt this. Some time ago, a number of factories and laboratories began using plants to produce yellow dyes or cleaning materials. Even plastics and packaging are produced from polylactic acid, which in turn is produced from corn or sugarcane. Computer boxes or mobile phones are also produced partly from materials of plant origin, as is the case for lubricating oil.
Despite everything, chemicals from plant sources remain intended only for special products, as more research must be done in the future to produce these materials on a large scale, says the German researcher. Indeed, researchers in the field of chemistry in universities and companies have begun their research in the field, as they search for methods for precious materials used in the chemical industry from sources such as corn or wood fibers.
The German researcher does not hide his fear that the use of plants in the chemical industry in Africa, Asia, or Latin America will cause famine in the inhabitants of those regions, because, according to Fischer, people there consume only small quantities of food plants. Hermann Fischer realizes that his vision for producing chemicals from plant sources cannot be literally implemented by companies, but he does not hide his happiness in talking with the officials of those companies about his vision, to find a better way to transform into an environmentally friendly chemical industry. Fisher believes that in the future, chemicals can be produced with a smaller percentage of raw materials, and he adds that plastic materials can be used for a longer period if they are produced from natural fibers.