Industrial production from biomass

Similarly to oil-based refineries, where many energy and chemical products are produced from crude oil, biorefineries will produce many different industrial products from biomass. These will include low-value, high-volume products, such as transportation fuels (e.g. biodiesel, bioethanol), commodity chemicals, as well as materials, and high-value, low-volume products or speciality chemicals, such as cosmetics or nutraceuticals. Energy is the driver for developments in this area, but as biorefineries become more and more sophisticated with time, other products will be developed. In some types of biorefinery, food and feed production may well also be incorporated. 

From a historical perspective, it is only during the very recent past that humans have learned to decouple primary industrial productivity from biomass production. In this brief period, we have come to rely heavily on fossil biomass -petroleum, coal, and natural gas- to enable our modern way of life by magnifying our ability to do work and allowing us to synthesize new compounds with unique properties. Even agriculture is now predominantly practiced in an intensive manner that relies on petroleum in the form of fuels and chemicals to produce the large harvests that have allowed human population to grow beyond what was believed possible only 100 years ago (/). 

MARCHAIM, U., and CRIDEN, J. Research and development in the utilization of agricultural wastes in Israel for energy, feedstock fodder, and industrial products. In D.L.Wise (Ed), Fuel Gas Production from Biomass . Vol. 1, CRC Press Inc. Boca Raton, Florida, pp. 95-120, 1981. 

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... 

Hydrogen production from fossil fuels will continue for the foreseeable future, given the large resource and the established industrial base. Research is focused on improving the environmental aspects of fossil fuel use, and a number of papers address advanced hydrogen production technologies that reduce or eliminate C02 emissions from the production process. In addition, hydrogen production from biomass, a renewable resource with the potential for zero net C02 emissions, is discussed. 

It is not the intention of this chapter to give an extensive review of the subject headlined but instead to discuss fundamentals, ways to select key chemicals, and, finally, examples for the current status of industrial chemical production from biomass. 

Table 2.2.1 Examples of the current status of industrial chemical production from biomass.

Claassen, P.A.M., van Groenestijin, J.W., Janssen, A.J.H., van Niel, E.W.J., and Wijffels, R.H. 2000. Feasibility of biological hydrogen production from biomass for utilization in fuel cells. In Proceedings of the 1st World Conference and Exhibition on biomass for energy and industry, Sevilla, Sapin, 5-9 June 2000. 

Borgwardt, R. (1998). Methanol production from biomass and natural gas as transportation fuel. Industrial Eng. Chem. Res. 37,3760-3767. 

Maniatis, K. (1999) Overview of EU THERM IE gasification projects. In Power Production from Biomass HI, Gasification Pyrolysis R D D for Industry, (Ed. by K. Sipila M. Korhonen), VTT Symposium 192, VTT Espoo. 

Alternative methods of hydrogen production are thermochemical water decomposition, photoconversions, photobiological processes, production from biomass, and various industrial processes where it is a by-product. 

Within the framework of nonalimentary preparation of products from biomass, Loupy et al. prepared acetals of L-galactono-1,4-lactone (an important byproduct from the sugar beet industry) in excellent yields [32] by adsorbing the lactone and a long-chain aldehyde on montmorillonite KIO or KSF clay then exposing the reaction mixture to MW irradiation (Scheme 8.1). Improvements over the conventional method are substantial (DMF, H2SO4, 24 h at 40 °C, yields less than 20-25%). 

The demand for electric energy is increasing in industrialized as well as in developing countries. Therefore, electricity production from biomass is often seen as one of the most important future markets for biomass worldwide. The same is also true, in principle, for the production of transportation fuels from biomass (see Chapter 8). 

Thoen,. and Busch, R. (2006) Industrial chemicals from biomass—industrial concepts, in Biorejineries Industrial Processes and Products Vol.2 Status Quo and Future Directions (eds B. Kamm, P. Gruber, and M. Kamm), Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH, Weinheim. 

Thoen J, Busch R. Industrial chemicals from biomass— industrial concepts. In Kamm B, Gruber PR, Kamm M, editors. Biorefineries—Industrial Processes and Products Status Quo and Future Directions. Volume 2, Weinheim Wiley-VCH 2006. 

Chong, M., Sabaratnam, V., Shirai, Y., Hassan, M. A. (2009). Biohydrogen production from biomass and industrial wastes by dark fermentation. International Journal of Hydrogen... 

Pyrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass leads to an array of useful products including liquid and solid derivatives and fuel gases. At the beginning of the twentieth century, pyrolysis processes were utilized for the commercial production of a wide range of fuels, solvents, chemicals, and other products from biomass feedstocks. At the time, the dry distillation of wood for the production of charcoal was the mainstay of the chemical industry. 

Apart from fuels, the production of renewable biochemicals has also been an age-old practice. Lactic acid was discovered by C.W. Sheele in 1780 (Demirbas, 2009b), which had been subsequently produced worldwide by the fermentation of glucose and pure starch. Now it is produced via enzymatic hydrolysis of starch and cellulose (Kamm and Kamm, 2007). Sustainability and environmental concerns have been the two driving forces behind global attention toward the production of such industrial chemicals from biomass. 

Biorefining is an effective process for the production of many value-added products from biomass feedstock, resulting in no or little waste. Therefore it can compete with the petrochemical industry, and it not only improves the economy of the nation but also lowers the overall environmental impact. The product cost and environmental impacts can be reduced because it s substantially, by combined production processes. 

---