Sugar biobased products

Heterogeneous catalysts, particularly zeolites, have been found suitable for performing transformations of biomass carbohydrates for the production of fine and specialty chemicals.123 From these catalytic routes, the hydrolysis of abundant biomass saccharides, such as cellulose or sucrose, is of particular interest. The latter disaccharide constitutes one of the main renewable raw materials employed for the production of biobased products, notably food additives and pharmaceuticals.124 Hydrolysis of sucrose leads to a 1 1 mixture of glucose and fructose, termed invert sugar and, depending on the reaction conditions, the subsequent formation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) as a by-product resulting from dehydration of fructose. HMF is a versatile intermediate used in industry, and can be derivatized to yield a number of polymerizable furanoid monomers. In particular, HMF has been used in the manufacture of special phenolic resins.125... 

Other companies showing strong interest in the production of biobased succinic acid and its derivatives are Mitsubishi Chemical and Ajinomoto Company, Inc., which have agreed to collaboratively develop a biobased process to convert sugars into succinic acid. These companies plan to construct a succinic acid plant in Japan with an initial capacity of 30,000 metric t/yr (MT) by 2006 (42). Table 4 shows the current market estimates for the fossil-based chemicals, as well as 2020 market estimates for the biobased products potentially based on biobased succinic acid. 

During the past few decades a substantial amount of effort has been devoted to the development of renewable products that are readily biodegradable, such as bioplastics for solid disposable articles, packaging applications, biobased surfactants, co-builders and bleaching activators for detergency applications and starch and sugar based products for the cosmetics industry. ... 

Ethyl lactate is produced by esterification of lactic acid with ethanol and this process can be done in biorefineries. In these plants, biomass as raw material is transformed into biobased products such as proteins, acids, alcohols, fibers or energy (biogas). In the case of ethyl lactate, both ethanol and lactic acid can be produced in biorefineries from a variety of biomass crops, such as sugar, starch or cellulosic feedstocks, particularly from wastes, resulting also in an economic revaluation for by-products. 

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... 

Biobased polymers from renewable materials have received increased attention recently. Lactate is a building block for bio-based polymers. In the United States, production of lactic acid is greater than 50,000 metric tons/yr and projected to increase exponentially to replace petroleum-based polymers. Domestic lactate is currently manufactured from corn starch using the filamentous fungus Rhizopus oryzae and selected species of lactic acid bacteria. The produced lactic acid can then be polymerized into polylactic acid (PLA) which has many applications (Hatti-Kaul et al., 2007). However, so far, no facility is built to use biomass derived sugars for lactic acid production. More research needs to be done to develop microbes using biomass derived sugars for lactate production. 

EcoSynthetix markets EcoSphere biolatex binder dispersions as a replacement for petroleum-based styrene butadiene latex. EcoSphere biolatex binders are based on starch derived from crops such as com, potatoes, and tapioca. Although the product was originally developed for the paper coating industry, it can also be applied in the textile coating industry. EcoSynthetix also produces EcoMer , a biobased building block to synthesize waterborne sugar-acrylic adhesives and resins. 

Table 1.6 gives an overview of the different biorefineries and their development stage. It should be mentioned that although the sugar and starch biorefineries are in full-scale operation, their development will get a new input due to the biobased economy demands for new products and certainly for reduction of costs. Further biorefinery improvement... 

Ethanol from sugars or starch is used in large quantities either as a fuel or fuel additive, or increasingly as a raw material for the production of (green) ethylene and polyethylene (PE). The principle of the dehydration of ethanol to ethylene can also be applied to other biobased alcohols, thus giving access to bioolefins and biohydrocarbons [11]. 

Approximately 10 dry tons of a fibrous residue (called bagasse) are produced for every ton of cane sugar while about 0.5 dry tons of residue are produced for every ton of beet sugar. Worldwide the total production of sugarcane bagasse is approximately 800 million metric tons per year. These residues have few other uses and represent a very large potential resource for bioprocessing to biobased industrial products. 

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