Vegetable resources annual plants

This chapter gives a general introduction to the book and describes briefly the context for which the editors established its contents and explains why certain topics were excluded from it. It covers the main raw materials based on vegetable resources, namely (i) wood and its main components cellulose, lignin, hemicelluloses, tannins, rosins and terpenes, as well as species-speciflc constituents, like natural rubber and suberin and (ii) annual plants as sources of starch, vegetable oils, hemicelluloses, mono and disaccharides and algae. Then, the main animal biomass constituents are briefly described, with particular emphasis on chitin, chitosan, proteins and cellulose whiskers from molluscs. Finally, bacterial polymers such as poly(hydroxyalkanoates) and bacterial cellulose are evoked. For each relevant renewable source, this survey alerts the reader to the corresponding chapter in the book. 

Biomass production on Earth corresponds to around 120,000 Mt per year. However, only 5% of that biomass is captured and used by hirmans, and of those 6,000 Mt, only 5% is not destined for energy or food usage. Thus, 300 Mt are already used for chemistry. Yet these quantities are fairly close to the 500 Mt of fossil resomces used annually for chemistry, so we can see the significant potential for substitution of fossil resources by increasing use of renewable resources. The resomces ttsed essential are starch and its derivatives - sugar, ethanol, etc. - cellulose, vegetable oil and glycerol, plant fibers, etc. 

The annual global production of major vegetable oils increases every year to meet the growing demand for eco-friendly and renewable resources. Vegetable oils are mass produced renewable resources, mainly derived from the seeds of a wide variety of plants. The term describes triglycerides of fatty acids which are liquid under ambient temperature and pressure. ... 

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