BREW project

The potential for fermentation technologies to produce bulk quantities of chemicals from sugars has stimulated much interest. The EU BREW project (BREW, 2006) identified a significant number of potential chemical building blocks of current commercial interest, which are, or could, be economically produced from fermentation and/or enzymic conversion of glucose, sucrose or starch (Table 2.5). 

Table 2.5 Key plant carbohydrate-derived chemical building blocks identified in the EU Brew project...

BREW, Medium and Long-Term Opportunities and Risks of the Biotechnological Production of Bulk Chemicals From Renewable Resources - The Potential of White Biotechnology, the BREW Project. Final report, 2006. 

Patel, M., Crank, M., Domburg, V., Hermann, B., Roes, L., Husing, B., Overbeek, L., Terragni, F. and Recchia, E. 2006. The BREW Project Report Medium and Long-Term Opportunities and Risks of the Biotechnological Production of Bulk Chemicals from Renewable Resources. http //www.chem.uu.nl/brew/BREW.Final.Report.September 2006.pdf Perretti, G., Miniati, E., Montanari, L. and Fantozzi, P. 2003. Improving the Value of Rice By-Products by SFE. J. Supercrit. Fluids, 6, 63-71. 

Funding the research on that topic has led to several major studies examining the potential of biomass as feedstock for chemical production. This includes the identification of possible intermediate chemicals, state-of-the-art processes for their production, and their current economic chances. Examples of these studies are the Top Value-Added Chemicals from Biomass [8] and, in Europe, the BREW project [9]. 

Several recent research projects have examined the potential of biomass as a renewable source of bulk chemicals. The BREW project has provided an exhaustive study of potential chemical precursors that can be produced from biological... 

Table 3.1 Examples of the most promising biomass-derived chemical building blocks identified by both the BREW project and the US Department of Energy [5, 7].

Patel, M., Crank, M., Dornburg, V., et al. (2005) Medium and long-term oppormnities and risks of the biotechnological production of bulk chemicals from renewable resources the potential of white biotechnology. The BREW Project. Utrecht University. 

Table 5.2 The 13 key plant carbohydrate-derived" building blocks identified in the EU BREW project (based on Patel et al. [2]).

Patel, M., Hermann, B., and Domburg, V. (2006) The BREW Project medium and long-term opportunities and risks of the biotechnoiogical production of bulk chemicals from renewable resources Final Report, Utrecht 2006, online available http //www.diem.uu.nl/brew/ programme.html. 

Apart from its use as a fuel, biomass gains increasing interest as feedstock for the chemical indusfry. The Brew project in which different biomaterials were assessed focus towards their potential in that sector [33]. A special role is played by the integration into the production of plastics, for which bio-based ethanol and subsequently polyethylene presents one alternative. As already stated, ethanol can be obtained from different sources. However, it seems that all data in the literature on greenhouse gas emissions and energy use for fermentation of Brazilian sugar cane and subsequent refinement to ethanol are based on the reports of one single researcher [34]. This is of course a limitation for the LCA. 

Walking-Working Surfaces and Fall Protection last year, it was the culmination of a regulatory project that s been brewing for decades. For the members of the Fall Protection Group of the International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA), it was a mark of success in efforts to get the agency to focus on protecting workers from falls. 

---