Renewable raw materials : new feedstocks for the chemical industry

One of the main challenges facing the chemical industry is the transition to sustainable operations. Industries are taking initiatives to reduce resource intensities or footprints, and by adopting safer materials and processes. Such efforts need to be supported by techniques that can quantify the broad economic and environmental implications of industrial operations, retrofi t options and provide new design alternatives.
This contemporary overview focuses on cradle-to-grave life cycle assessments of existing or conceptual processes for producing valueadded fuels, chemicals, and/or materials from renewable agricultural residues, plant-derived starches and oils, lignocellulosic biomass, and plant-based industrial processing wastes.
It presents the key concepts, systems, and technologies, with an emphasis on new feedstocks for the chemical industry. Each chapter uses common themes of specifi c raw materials, thus forming a natural progression throughout the book. The result is coverage from a wide range of perspectives, emphasizing not only the technical issues but also considering the market place and socio-economic aspects.

Author Notes

Roland Ulber studied chemistry at the University of Hanover, Germany, graduating in 1994, and where he gained his PhD in 1996 from the Institute of Technical Chemistry. He received his lecturing qualification from the same university in 2002, and has been. Professor for Bioengineering at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern since 2004. He is involved in several national and international research projects in the area of biorefineries, and is chairman of the working group on "Biotechnological Use of Renewable Resources" at the DECHEMA in Frankfurt. Professor Ulber's main research interest is the use of renewable resources as feedstock for chemical and biotechnological processes.
A professor at Stuttgart University, Germany, since 2008, Thomas Hirth studied chemistry at Karlsruhe University with a focus on organic and technical chemistry, where he gained his doctorate in physical chemistry in 1992. Since then he has worked at the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, initially as department head of environmental engineering at the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology, and since 2007 as head of the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial and Bioprocess Engineering. With numerous publications to his name, Professor Hirth is a member of various scientific-technical societies, such as the GDCh, DECHEMA and VDI, chair of several expert committees and a member of the council on bioeconomy. The main emphasis of his scientific work is on the material use of renewable resources and the development of biorefinery concepts for integrating chemical and biotechnological processes.
An extraordinary professor at Leibniz University Hanover, Germany, since the beginning of 2010, Dieter Sell studied biology with a focus on biochemistry at Ruhruniversitt Bochum. He gained his doctorate in 1991 at the institute of chemical engineering of Dortmund University, and his lecturing qualification in 2004 from the University of Hanover in technical chemistry. From 1991 onwards he developed the bioprocess engineering working group at the Karl Winnacker Institute of DECHEMA, which he has led until 2006. This group is involved in bioelectrochemical systems, the production of biotechnological materials and in ecoefficiency analyses for biotechnical products. Also, since that same year Professor Sell has been head of the biotechnology department at DECHEMA, and an activemember of national and international committees working on the use of renewable resources in industrial biotechnology.

Roland Ulber and Kai Muffler and Nils Tippkötter and Thomas Hirth and Dieter SellPeter C. Morris and Peter Welters and Bernward GarthoffJohn K. HughesMagnus Fröhling and Jörg Schweinle and Jörn-Christian Meyer and Frank SchultmannChristoph Syldatk and Ceorg Schaub and Ines Schulze and Dorothea Ernst and Anke NeumannAbbas Kazmi and James ClarkAntonio Lopolito and Maurizio Prosper and Roberta Sisto and Pasquale PazienzaRainer BuschLiselotte SchebekRoland Ulber and Thomas Hirth and Dieter Sell

List of Contributor	p. xi
1 Introduction to Renewable Resources in the Chemical Industry	p. 1
2 Plants as Bioreactors: Production and Use of Plant-Derived Secondary Metabolites, Enzymes, and Pharmaceutical Proteins	p. 7
2.1 Introduction	p. 7
2.2 Renewable Resources in the Chemical Industry	p. 7
2.2.1 Commodity Production	p. 8
2.2.2 Production Problems	p. 9
2.2.3 Natural Rubber as Compared to Synthetic Rubber	p. 12
2.2.4 Cellulose and Other Fibers	p. 12
2.2.5 Paper Production	p. 13
2.2.6 Starch Production	p. 15
2.2.7 Sugar Production and Improvement of Yield by Genetic Engineering	p. 16
2.3 Fine Chemicals and Drugs	p. 17
2.3.1 Plant Cell Culture	p. 17
2.3.2 Terpenoids	p. 17
2.3.3 Amino Acids	p. 18
2.3.4 Fatty Acid Derivatives	p. 18
2.3.5 Plant Protection	p. 19
2.3.6 Small Molecule Drugs	p. 19
2.3.7 Polyphenols and Resveratrol	p. 22
2.4 Plant-Made Pharmaceuticals	p. 22
2.4.1 Vaccines	p. 24
2.4.2 Monoclonal Antibodies	p. 25
2.4.3 Other Therapeutic Proteins	p. 26
2.4.4 Methodologies for PMP Production	p. 26
References	p. 28
3 World Agricultural Capacity	p. 33
3.1 Petrochemicals Today	p. 33
3.2 Renewable Chemicals	p. 34
3.2.1 Traditional Uses	p. 34
3.2.2 Potential Raw Materials	p. 34
3.2.3 Scope for Substitution	p. 35
3.3 Agricultural Production	p. 36
3.3.1 Current Situation	p. 36
3.3.2 Increasing Production	p. 40
3.3.3 Increasing Availability	p. 43
3.3.4 Future Prospects	p. 43
3.4 Supplying the Chemical Industry	p. 44
3.5 Summary	p. 45
References	p. 46
4 Logistics of Renewable Raw Materials	p. 49
4.1 Introduction	p. 49
4.2 Determining Factors for the Logistics of Industrial Utilization Chains for Renewable Raw Materials	p. 50
4.2.1 Operating in a Natural Environment	p. 50
4.2.2 Characterization of Selected Renewable Raw Materials	p. 52
4.2.2.1 Oil Crops	p. 52
4.2.2.2 Sugar Crops	p. 57
4.2.2.3 Starch Crops	p. 60
4.2.2.4 Lignocellulosic Biomass	p. 64
4.2.2.5 Other Biogenic Residues	p. 67
4.2.2.6 Algae	p. 68
4.2.3 Actors and Stakeholders-Mobilization of the Renewable Raw Materials	p. 69
4.3 Processing Steps of Renewable Raw Material Logistic Chains	p. 71
4.3.1 Cultivation and Harvesting for Selected Types of Renewable Raw Materials	p. 71
4.3.1.1 Agricultural Production	p. 71
4.3.1.2 Forest Production	p. 75
4.3.2 Transport	p. 79
4.3.3 Storage	p. 81
4.4 Design and Planning of Renewable Raw Material Logistic Chains	p. 82
4.4.1 Determining Plant Sizes: Economies of Scale vs. Minimization of Transport Load	p. 82
4.4.2 Facility Location Planning and Determining the Logistical Structure of a Renewable Raw Material Utilization Chain	p. 85
4.4.3 Consideration of Competing Utilization Pathways	p. 86
4.4.4 Demand for Integrated Assessment and Planning Methods for Renewable Raw Material Logistic Chains	p. 88
4.5 Summary and Conclusions	p. 89
References	p. 90
5 Existing Value Chains	p. 95
5.1 Industrial Biotechnology Today - Main Products, Substrates, and Raw Materials	p. 95
5.2 White Biotechnology-Future Products from Today's Raw Materials?	p. 97
5.3 Effects of Feedstock and Process Technology on the Production Cost of Chemicals	p. 100
5.3.1 Introduction	p. 100
5.3.2 Simplified Procedure for Cost Estimation	p. 102
5.3.3 Example: Alkenes from Petroleum Fractions and from Bioethanol	p. 104
5.4 New Raw Materials for White Biotechnology	p. 105
5.5 Case Studies: Lignocellulose as Raw Material and Intermediates	p. 107
5.5.1 Bioethanol and Chemical Production from Lignocellulosic Biomass	p. 107
5.5.2 Limitations	p. 110
5.5.2.1 Substrate	p. 110
5.5.2.2 Pretreatrnent	p. 110
5.5.2.3 Composition of Biomass	p. 111
5.5.2.4 Hydrolysis	p. 111
5.5.2.5 Fermentation	p. 112
5.5.3 Research and Development Potential	p. 112
5.6 Case Studies: "SCOs" as Raw Material and Intermediate	p. 114
5.6.1 Microbial SCOs	p. 114
5.6.2 Industrial Use of Microbial SCOs	p. 114
5.6.3 Limitations and Research and Development Potential	p. 115
5.7 Conclusions	p. 117
References	p. 118
6 Future Biorefineries	p. 121
6.1 Introduction	p. 121
6.2 Current and Future Outlook for Biofuels	p. 122
6.2.1 Bioethanol	p. 123
6.2.2 Biobutanol	p. 125
6.2.3 Biodiesel	p. 125
6.2.4 Microalgae	p. 127
6.3 Chemicals from Renewable Resources	p. 129
6.3.1 Succinic Acid	p. 129
6.3.2 Aspartic Acid	p. 131
6.3.3 Levulinic Acid	p. 132
6.3.4 Sorbitol Add (SBA)	p. 132
6.3.5 Glycerol	p. 133
6.4 The Role of Clean Technologies in Biorefineries	p. 134
6.4.1 Separation Technologies	p. 134
6.4.2 Spercritical CO 2 Extraction	p. 135
6.4.3 Cellulose Hydrolysis	p. 136
6.4.4 Thermochemical Processing	p. 138
6.5 The Size of Future Biorefineries	p. 139
6.6 Conclusions	p. 139
References	p. 140
7 Economic and Social Implications of the Industrial Use of Renewable Raw Materials	p. 143
7.1 Introduction	p. 143
7.2 Biorefinery Industry and the Development of EU Rural Areas	p. 146
7.2.1 Overview of Different Models of Biorefinery Industry	p. 146
7.2.2 Potential Effects of the Global Model	p. 147
7.2.3 Potential Effects of the Local Model	p. 149
7 2.4 Which Biorefinery Model for EU Rural Areas?	p. 149
7.3 From Analytic to Systemic Modeling Methodology of the Biorefinery Industry	p. 150
7.3.1 The Search for a Theoretical Framework Capable of Dealing with Novelty, Uncertainty, Ignorance, and Unpredictability	p. 150
7.3.2 FCMs to Find Knowledge in Complex Systems	p. 152
7.4 Stakeholders' Perceptions of Biorefinery in Rural Areas: Issues and Lessons from the South of Italy	p. 155
7.4.1 A Network Analysis of Stakeholders' Knowledge	p. 156
7.4.2 Interpretation of Results	p. 162
7.4.2.1 Determinants	p. 162
7.4.2.2 Influential Conditions	p. 164
7.4.2.3 Effects	p. 164
7.5 Concluding Remarks	p. 165
Acknowledgments	p. 166
References	p. 166
8 Biobased Products-Market Needs and Opportunities	p. 169
8.1 Introduction	p. 169
8.2 Definition	p. 170
8.3 Basic Technology for the Conversion of Renewable Raw Materials	p. 172
8.4 Classes of Bioproducts	p. 172
8.5 Current Status	p. 173
8.5.1 Polymers	p. 174
8.5.1.1 Polylactic Acid	p. 174
8.5.1.2 Polyethylene	p. 175
8.5.1.3 Others	p. 175
8.5.1.4 Potential	p. 176
8.5.2 Lubricants	p. 177
8.5.3 Solvents	p. 179
8.5.4 Surfactants	p. 180
8.6 Outlook and Perspectives	p. 182
References	p. 185
9 Life-Cycle Analysis of Biobased Products	p. 187
9.1 Introduction: Why Life-Cycle Analysis of Biobased Products?	p. 187
9.2 The Methodological Framework of LCA	p. 188
9.2.1 General Goal and Framework of LCA	p. 188
9.2.2 Phases of LCA	p. 189
9.2.2.1 General Scheme	p. 189
9.2.2.2 Goal and Scope Definition	p. 190
9.2.2.3 Life Cycle Inventory (LCI)	p. 190
9.2.2.4 Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA)	p. 192
9.2.2.5 Interpretation	p. 196
9.2.3 Databases and Software for LCA	p. 196
9.3 Specific Methodological Aspects for LCA for Biobased Products	p. 196
9.3.1 Methodological Outline	p. 196
9.3.2 Accounting for Land Use in LCA	p. 198
9.3.2.1 Conceptual Aspects for Treatment of Land Use in LCA	p. 198
9.3.2.2 Land Occupation and Land Transformation	p. 198
9.3.2.3 Impacts of Land Use	p. 199
9.4 LCA Studies for Biobased Products: Major Findings and Insights	p. 200
9.4.1 Biofuels	p. 200
9.4.2 Biopolymers	p. 204
9.4.3 Products from Biotechnological Processes	p. 206
9.4.4 Composites	p. 208
9.4.5 Consumer Products	p. 209
9.4.5.1 Packaging	p. 210
9.4.5.2 Products for the Building Sector	p. 210
9.4.5.3 Lubricants	p. 210
9.5 Conclusions	p. 211
References	p. 212
10 Conclusion	p. 217
Index	p. 221

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