Vegetable oils polymer building blocks

Functionalized Vegetable Oils for Utilization as Polymer Building Blocks, U.S. Department of Energy, Industrial Technologies Program Fact Sheet, May 2001 oit.doe.gov/ agriculture... 

Figure 9.1.35 Polymer building blocks based on vegetable oils.

Generally speaking, numerous synthons can be extracted from biomass. One known example is that of ethylene, produced from the dehydration of ethanol which is a very common product of fermentation. Another example is 1,3-propanediol, which is a monomer used as a building block for the production of polymers such as polyesters and polyurethanes. Several industrial processes have studied its production by fermentation with the aim of producing it directly from inexpensive plant raw materials (starch or sucrose). To synthesize polyamides and polyesters, we also aim to produce a,(o-dicarboxylic acids by the biological conversion of esters from vegetable oils. 

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