Biorefineries chemical industry

Clark, J.H., Green Chemistry for the Second Generation Biorefinery - Sustainable Chemical Manufacturing Based on Biomass, J. Chem. Technol. Biotechnol., 82, 603-609 (2007). de Jong, E., R. van Ree, R. van Tuil and W. Elbersen, Biorefineries for the Chemical Industry - A Dutch Point of View, in Biorefineries - Biobased Industrial Processes and Products. Status Quo and Future Directions, B. Kamm, M. Kamm, and P. Gruber (Eds), Wiley-VCH, (2006). 

As reported in the U.S. Department of Energy study Top Value-Added Chemicals from Biomass. Vol. II, Results of Screening for Potential Candidates from Biorefinery Lignin, the biomass production in the United States is capable of supplying all necessary raw materials for the complete chemical industry [17]. 

For the last 70 years or so the chemical industry has been based on crude oil (petroleum) and natural gas as basic raw materials, hence the name petrochemicals. This may not be so for much longer, however. The chemical industry is currently on the brink of a new revolution, based on the switch from fossil resources to renewable agriculture-based raw materials. From a distance the production facility of Cargill in Blair, Nebraska looks very much like a small oil refinery or medium-sized petrochemicals plant. However, closer inspection reveals that it is a corn-processing plant a biorefinery producing, inter alia, high-fruc-tose corn syrup, ethanol and lactic acid. As James R. Stoppert, a senior executive of Cargill pointed out, the chemical industry is based on carbon and it does not matter if the carbon was fixed 2 million years ago or 6 months ago [1]. 

Sustainable usage of lignin for material production is stiU to be established Simultaneous fermentation of C6 and C5 sugars from the hemicellulose fraction is StiU to be optimized Embedding product streams of the biorefinery into the chemical industry is StiU to be estabUshed... 

Pervaiz M, Sain M. Biorefinery opportunities and barriers for petro-chemical industries. Pulp Pap Can 2006 107(6) 31-3. 

De Jong E,Van Ree R.VanTuil R, Eibersen W. Biorefineries for the chemical industry—a Dutch point of view. In Kamm B, Gruber PR, Kamm M, editors. Biorefineries—industrial processes and products. Status quo and future directions, vol. l.Weinheim, Germany WILEV-VCH 2006. p. 102—3. 

Conversion after separation, biorefinery process streams are subjected to chemical, thermal or biochemical conversions. The output of this operation is a portfolio of biobased fuels and chemicals. Of the three primary operations, conversion is the least well developed for the biorefinery. While the petrochemical industry can describe many high yield, selective conversions of their primary building blocks (ethylene, propylene, benzene and so on) only a scant number of biorefinery conversions, comparable in efficiency and breadth to the existing chemical industry, are available. 

Therefore, chemicals and materials derived from biomass are the only alternatives to oil-derived chemical products, which means that we have to redesign those central chemical processes and molecules which form the basis of the current chemical industry. New monomers and processes based on new technologies, such as biorefinery and industrial biotechnology, will replace them and help the chemical industry to stay competitive. 

As was the case for petrochemicals, development of appropriate technology for the biorefinery will not occur immediately. It is critical to recognize that in comparison to fuels and power, chemicals and materials are, by far, the most technically complicated of the potential biorefinery outputs. The diversity inherent in chemicals and materials accurately reflects the nature of the chemical industry itself, anticipated to be the primary customer for any technology development. The fuels and power components are convergent, while the chemicals component is divergent (Figure 1). Importantly, this realization... 

For the application in biorefineries, a part of the so far undesired microorganisms from the food and forage production (e.g. silage) and their products can be newly evaluated. It is the case when undesirable by-products become desirable products, e.g. for the chemical industry. For that, the metabolic pathways are specifically utilised for these products and will be modified at time. A few examples of organic acids which could attain greater meaning and their microbial producers are described in the following section. 

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