Fossil feedstocks

Both new catalysts and new processes need to be developed for a complete exploitation of the potential of CO2 use [41]. The key motivation to producing chemicals from CO2 is that CO2 can lead to totally new polymeric materials and also new routes to existing chemical intermediates and products could be more efficient and economical than current methods. As a case in point, the conventional method for methanol production is based on fossil feedstock and the production of dimethyl carbonate (DMC) involves the use of toxic phosgene or CO. A proposed alternative production process involves the use of CO2 as a raw material (Figure 7.1)... 

The degree to which industrialized societies have dematerialized can be seen from Figure 1.3, in which the amount of material consumed (expressed as carbon from fossil feedstocks used) per unit of added value (using gross domestic product as a measure of economic activity) has declined steadily over the past 30 years of industrial development. 

As expected, the composition of feedstock can greatly impact the pyrolysis product yields. Table 4.2 reports product yields from pyrolysis of various biomass and fossil feedstocks at 500°C. 

The plant concept for co-production of hydrogen and electricity is applicable to a very broad range of fossil fuels and also biomass without paying tributes to climate change. At the same time energy supply security is improved, as a result of the diversification of (fossil) feedstock options. 

Using hydrogen to produce electrical energy from fossil fuels in large centralised plants will contribute positively to achieving important reductions of C02 emissions, if this is combined with C02 capture and sequestration processes. Such plants will also help to increase the diversification of resources, since a variety of fossil feedstocks can be used, including resources such as coal and waste that otherwise cause major impacts on the environment, as well as biomass. 

In concepts for new products the performance, product safety, and product economy criteria are equally important. They are taken into account already when the raw material base for a new industrial product development is defined. Here, renewable resources have often been shown to have advantages compared with fossil feedstock. Over the years it has been demonstrated that the use of vegetable fats and oils in oleochemistry allows the development of competitive, powerful products that are both consumer- and environmentally-friendly. Products from recent developments fit with this requirement profile. 

Feedstock availability, or what alternatives exist to nonrenewable fossil feedstock. 

Methane is a fossil feedstock of potential interest to the chemical industry. Methane is to be found as an unexploited (so-called stranded gas) stream from... 

From a chemical perspective, renewable feedstocks being highly functionalized molecules are very different from fossil feedstocks that are generally unfunctionalized. Therefore, the challenge in converting fossil resources, in particular crude oil, into useful products has been to develop methods that allow controlled addition of desirable chemical functionality to the hydrocarbon feedstock. Due to the quite low reactivity of the hydrocarbons it has... 

Abstract Today, the increasing global population and the rising consumption of fossil resources for energy and material use are important issues for research activities in the field of transformation of renewable resources. In petrochemistry, well-established reactions like hydroformylation are performed in multiton plants all over the world and are important examples for processing new resources beyond fossil feedstocks. This chapter deals with the application of three important reactions with carbon monoxide, specifically hydroformylation, hydroaminomethylation, and hydroesterification with renewables which have a C-C-double bond in the starting material. In these reactions, unsaturated oleocompounds and a variety of terpenes can be employed because of their naturally available double bonds. 

Use of existing know-how of petrochemistry, especially from the field of chemo-catalysis, keeping in mind that the processes leading to chemicals from biomass are necessarily different from those that start from fossil feedstock. 

The necessity to switch from nonrenewable fossil resources to renewable raw materials, such as carbohydrates and triglycerides derived from biomass, was an important conclusion of the Report of the Club of Rome in 1972 [2]. It should be noted, however, that ca. 80% of the global production of oil is converted to thermal or electrical energy. If the world is facing an oil crisis it is, therefore, an energy crisis rather than a raw materials crisis for the chemical industry. Indeed, there are sufficient reserves of fossil feedstocks to satisfy the needs of the chemical industry for a long time to come. 

Renewable raw materials can contribute to the sustainability of chemical products in two ways (i) by developing greener, biomass-derived products which replace existing oil-based products, e.g. a biodegradable plastic, and (ii) greener processes for the manufacture of existing chemicals from biomass instead of from fossil feedstocks. These conversion processes should, of course, be catalytic in order to maximize atom efficiencies and minimize waste (E factors) but they could be chemo- or biocatalytic, e.g. fermentation [3-5]. Even the chemocatalysts themselves can be derived from biomass, e.g. expanded com starches modified with surface S03H or amine moieties can be used as recyclable solid acid or base catalysts, respectively [6]. 

Table 47. World Reserves and Consumption Rate of Fossil Feedstocks in 1994 [1442]...

As will become apparent in what follows, some oxygenates are manufactured by established, commercial, microbial processes using biomass feedstocks. Others can be manufactured by microbial conversion of biomass, but are currently produced using thermochemical conversion methods, usually with fossil feedstocks because of economic or technical factors. A few other oxygenates must be manufactured by thermochemical conversion of fossil feedstocks because suitable microbial processes do not yet exist to produce the oxygenate from biomass. Still others can be produced by a combination of thermochemical and microbial conversion. Microbial conversion systems with biomass feedstocks are emphasized here, but thermochemical methods are briefly reviewed to present a perspective on the options available and what advancements are necessary to perfect suitable processes. 

In this chapter, organic chemicals in the commodity category and the potential of biomass to replace fossil feedstocks for the manufacture of these chemicals are discussed. Some of the low-volume specialty chemicals and new products that are or can be manufactured from biomass are also examined. 

An approach to the production of ethylene from biomass that does not involve pyrolysis is ethanol dehydration. The catalytic conversion of syngas to ethanol from low-grade biomass (or fossil) feedstocks, and fermentation ethanol via advanced cellulose hydrolysis and fermentation methods, which make it possible to obtain high yields of ethanol from low-grade biomass feedstocks as well, are both expected to be commercialized in the United States (Chapter 11). Which technology becomes dominant in the market place has... 

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