Biomass resources, industrial development

There is no single biomass for the energy industry. Rather, many companies are active in utilizing a variety of biomass resources. In most cases, the principal line of business of these companies is not biomass development but agricultural production, wood products manufacturing, distilling, and similar... 

The development and use of materials from renewable sources is not a new concept. Besides providing food, feed, clothes, shelter, and energy, biomass has been employed since ancient times to extract valuable products such as medicinal drugs, flavors, and fragrances. With the development of civilization of human society, in the nineteenth century various biomass resources were employed for the large-scale industrial production of chemicals and durable materials, such as cellulose esters (nitrate and acetate), oxidized linseed oil (linoleum), vulcanized rubber, adhesives from starches, and so on. However, the widespread use of such renewable materials diminished in the twentieth century since the development of fossil fuel derivatives, leading to the polymer renaissance. Today commodity polymers such as polyolefins are ubiquitous in our societies because they represent the optimal choice based on several factors, including monomer cost and... 

The centuiy is envisioned to become the age of biology as renewable biomass resources begin to replace petroleum in the production of energy and industrial products including els, chemicals and new biodegradable materials (7). Despite its relative abundance and renewability, the hemicellulosic fraction of woody plants has not been fully developed into a commercially attractive feedstock for the production of biobased products. Although differences exist between hardwoods, softwoods and other plants, the hemicellulose component of... 

BIOMASS is the only potentially renewable source of organic chemicals, organic materials and liquid transportation fuels. The biomass resource is huge. While estimates are necessarily imprecise, it is believed that photosynthesis fixes approximately 150billion tons of newplant matter annually on the planet. Production of biobased industrial products has the potential to benefit both the economy and the environment and to provide new pathways for sustainable economic development. 

Recently, UP made partly from biomass resources have been developed for commercial applications. Eor example, Japan U-PICA Co. Ltd [57] has recently patented the synthesis of UP resin made partly of monomers from inedible biomass resources. The resulting resin is proven to exhibit better processability and performance comparable to that of conventional UP. Bamboo, hemp, and kenaf fiber mat-reinforced composites of this particular resin have exhibited high specific bending strength and stiffness comparable to those of glass fiber mat-reinforced composites. Another biosynthetic resin that has been recently gaining more attention in the biocomposite industry is poly(furfuryl alcohol) (PEA), or furan resin. 

This volume, together with the first volume entitled Carbohydrates and Sustainable Development, Part 1 - Renewable Resources for Chemistry and Biotechnology, demonstrates that a variety of industrial products can be accessed using renewable and low-cost biomass. Both volumes are based on selected papers presented at Carbohydrates as Organic Raw Materials V - Building a Sustainable Future (CORM V), held in Lisbon in January 2009. The conference was chaired by Amelia Pilar Ranter (University of Lisboa) and Yves Queneau (University of Lyon, INSA Lyon), in collaboration with Frieder W. Lichtenthaler (Technische... 

Catalytic hydrogenation represents a set of reactions that will be extremely important in the production of value-added chemicals from biomass. Already now, they play a significant role in today s industry, and holds great promise for further developments. Here, selected examples of heterogeneously catalyzed hydrogenations of chemicals available from renewables resources are presented. 

For DuPont, the commercialization of 1,3-propanediol and PTT has opened up markets for industrial products from renewable resources. Through a partnership with Genencor International, DuPont has recently developed a lower-cost fermentation route that converts biomass sugars into 1,3-propanediol. DuPont plans to transition to the biobased process for... 

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