Biomass-to-chemicals

Conversion of polymers and biomass to chemical intermediates and monomers by using subcritical and supercritical water as the reaction solvent is probable. Reactions of cellulose in supercritical water are rapid (< 50 ms) and proceed to 100% conversion with no char formation. This shows a remarkable increase in hydrolysis products and lower pyrolysis products when compared with reactions in subcritical water. There is a jump in the reaction rate of cellulose at the critical temperature of water. If the methods used for cellulose are applied to synthetic polymers, such as PET, nylon or others, high liquid yields can be achieved although the reactions require about 10 min for complete conversion. The reason is the heterogeneous nature of the reaction system (Arai, 1998). 

When considering biomass as a source of chemical feedstock, it is also important to remember that it is not a homogeneous organic structure. The carbohydrate structures of terrestrial plants are composed of both five-carbon and six-carbon sugar polymers. The lignin component, which binds the polymers together, is an aromatic polymer of nominally propyl-methoxyphenols. In addition, there are proteins and fatty acids/oils, as well as the trace biocomponents that incorporate much of the mineral content. Therefore, processing biomass to chemical products must take into consideration both its bulk chemical structure and its components. 

For organic chemicals, transmaterialisation must mean a shift from fossil (mainly petroleum) feedstocks (which have a cycle time of > 107 years) to plant-based feedstocks (with cycle times of < 103 years). This immediately raises several fundamentally important questions Can we produce and use enough plants to satisfy the carbon needs of chemical and related manufacturing, while not compromising other (essentially food and feed) needs Do we have the technologies necessary to carry out the conversions (biomass to chemicals) and in a way that does not completely compromise the environmental and transmaterialisation characteristics of the new process ... 

Liu, S., Amidon, T., Francis, R. et al. (2006) From forest biomass to chemicals and energy biorefinery initiative in New York. Industrial Biotechnology, 2(2), 113-120. 

Corma, A., Huber, G. W., Sauvanaud, L., and O Connor, P. Biomass to chemical Conversion of glycerol/water mixtures into acrolein. J. Catal, 257, 163 (2008). 

Arias KS, Al-Resayes SI, Climent MJ, Corma A, Iborra S (2013) From biomass to chemicals synthesis of precursors of biodegradable surfactants from 5-hydroxymethylfurfural. ChemSusChem 6 123-131... 

Keywords Biomass-to-chemicals Catalysis Cellulose Renewables Lactic acid Vinyl glycolic acid Biodegradable polymers... 

Recently, conversion of biomass to chemicals and materials has been a research hotspot. New and great progress on efficient separation and high value added application of the three main biomass components (cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin) have been made. 

Shahbazali, E. (2013). Bioreflnery from biomass to chemicals and fuels. Green Processing and Synthesis, 2, 87—88. 

M. Aresta, A. Dibenedetto, and E Dumeignil, Biorefinery From Biomass to Chemicals and Fuels, Walter de Gruyter, 2012. 

Bioreflnery from Biomass to Chemicals and Fuels -, Aresta, M. Dibenedetto, A. Dumeignil, F. Eds. De Gruyter Publications Berlin, Germany, 2012 Chapter 17. 

Conversion of Biomass to Chemicals The Catalytic Role of Zeolites... 

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