Base Chemicals from Renewable Raw Materials

Raw material Base chemical Production (mio.ta ) Year Price (2005) ( t ) 

In 2005, 245 Mio. tonnes of fossil and renewable raw materials were used by the chemical industry, but only 10% stems from renewable resources, mainly plant 

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Table 5.1.33 shows the global production of important petrochemical base chemicals and base chemicals from renewable raw materials. The comparison shows that the orders of magnitude are similar. However, the use of renewable raw materials for the production of chemicals and biofuels is limited by the available land area and affects food production, respectively (Figure 5.1.12). Currently, 100 Mio. tonnes of biofuels are, globally, produced per year. This number is huge however, one has to consider that the amount of liquid fuels produced from crude oil (gasoline, kerosene, diesel) is still much larger (about 2500 Mio. ta ). 

Table 5.1.33 Comparison of global production of petrochemical base chemicals and base chemicals from renewable raw materials [data for 2005 from Behr, Agar, and Joerissen (2010) and for 2010 from OECD-FAO (2011) data for natural rubber from Ulber, Sell, and Hirth (2011)].

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