Potential Raw Materials

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 

Chemical product Carbon number Raw material Production route 

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Industrial by-products are becoming more widely used as raw materials for cement, eg, slags contain carbonate-free lime, as well as substantial levels of silica and alumina. Fly ash from utility boilers can often be a suitable feed component, because it is already finely dispersed and provides silica and alumina. Even vegetable wastes, such as rice hull ash, provide a source of silica. Probably 50% of all industrial by-products are potential raw materials for Pordand cement manufacture. 

In order to generate a candidate EAR, one should consider potential raw materials and by-products, satisfaction of stoichiometric conditions, assurance of thermodynamic feasibility, and fulfillment of environmental requirements. These issues can be addressed by employing an optimization formulation to identify an overall reaction that yields the desired product at maximum economic potential while satisfying stoichiometric, thermodynamic, and environmental constraints. For a more detailed description of this optimization program, the reader is referred to Crabtree and El-Halwagi (1994). 

Straw as Potential Raw Material for Chemicals, M. Stacey, Agric. Progr, 51 (1976) 69-75. 

After a product has passed the critical tests as an insecticide and a preferred process of manufacture has been decided upon, full information concerning use, potential raw materials, and process is the basis for the preparation of firm cost estimates. These estimates may cover production on a small or pilot plant scale, or on a large scale. If estimates are favorable, the process information is passed along to the manufacturing unit which, as a... 

Haulm (stem) The possibility of using winged bean haulm as a potential raw material for single cell protein production in the tropics has been investigated by Zomer et al. (78). Semi-sol id fermentation of haulm, using various fungi, yielded a product containing 20% true protein, a 30% increase over the native material. The fermentation also increased the sulfur amino acid content by 1.5 to 6 fold. 

The present utilization of carbohydrates as a feedstock for the chemical industry is modest, when considering their ready availability, low cost and huge potential [92], The bulk of the annually renewable carbohydrate biomass consists of polysaccharides, but their non-food utilization is still modest. The low-molecular-weight carbohydrates, that is, the constituent units of these polysaccharides, are potential raw materials for several commodity chemicals in fact, glucose (available from cornstarch, bagasse, molasses, wood), fructose (inulin), xylose (hemicelluloses) or the disaccharide sucrose (world production 140 Mtons year-1) are inexpensive and available on a scale of several ten thousands. 

Kovac, V., Pekic, B., and Berenji, J., Jerusalem artichoke as a potential raw material for the production of alcohol, in Microbiological Conversion of Raw Materials and By-Products of Agriculture into Proteins, Alcohol, and Other Products Seminar Proceedings, Novi Sad, Yugoslavia, 1983, pp. 35-51. 

The following is a listing of issued patents that refer to Jerusalem artichoke. The list is not comprehensive, however, because hundreds of other patents concern inulin and fructooligosaccha-rides, in which Jerusalem artichoke is a potential raw material. 

There have also been a number of LCA studies performed on industrial paint coatings. One study done by Shonnard et al.110 compared five different coating processes for wooden doors. It appears from this analysis that the UV coating process has the least risk potential, raw material consumption, emissions, and energy consumption. Papasavva etal.128 also conducted a life-cycle assessment on paints used in the automotive indus-... 

To determine potential raw material impacts on brown coal hydroliquefaction, the 15 lithotypes were converted into liquid products using various techniques (18) ... 

For the pellet manufacture as well as the pyrolysis unit a raw material intake of 100.000 tons of dry substance wood per year is assumed. The amount is available within a transportation distance of 100 km in many places in Sweden. At present most of the wood fuel manufacturing is supplied with raw material from forest industries pulp industry, saw mills, etc. Residues and waste products may be obtained in a range of prices and only a very minor part of the potential raw material from forestry is actually collected today. 

M. oleifera oil has been characterized for different properties (15,47,127). M. oleifera has high contents of oil which makes it a potential raw material for the vegetable oil industry. Oil contents ranging between 25.1 and 41.4% have been reported depending on the extraction medium (2,15). The oil contents in the leaves ranges between 5.4 and 10.6% (6,40). However, the oil contents depend on a number of factors with significant variations in oil content as a function of season and agroclimatic locations (4,127). 

These conclusions form the foundation for the next section. They indicate that some wastes should be viewed as potential raw materials, but identifying uses for these novel raw materials poses some challenges. 

USE Potential raw material for gasoline and coke. In the making of asphalt floor tile, storage battery boxes, inks, paints, and insulation for hot underground piping. 

It is not only the price of potential raw materials which must be determined but also their availability and quality (purity, state as delivered). It is never possible to reach a generally applicable decision on a particular raw material since much depends on its availability at a particular location and variation with time. 

In recent ten years, xylans and mannans have been studied as potential raw materials for biodegradable films. Sometimes they are blended with other polymers or mixed with nanoparticles to achieve enhanced properties. This chapter covers the occurrence, structure and properties of xylans and mannans as well as recent smdies on xylan- and mannan-based blends, composites, and nanocomposites. 

Willfor, S., Sundberg, K., Tenkanen, M., Holmbom, B. Spruce derived mannans—A potential raw material for hydrocolloids and novel advanced natural materials. Caibohydr. Polym. 72, 197-210 (2008)... 

Red mud is a very complex material. It is a mixture of several oxides and minerals such as hematite, sodium aluminum silicates, and rutile. These make the mud a potential raw material for the production of additives for cements. 

Copolymers of butadiene with styrene and piperilenes represent potential raw materials for obtaining liquid oligomers [43-47]. 

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