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Industrial Chemicals from Biorenewables. Brent Shanks Chemical & Biological Engineering Department Iowa State University. Outline. Background Industrial chemicals Overview of the current industry Role of biorenewables. Let’s start with some perspective.
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Industrial Chemicals from Biorenewables Brent Shanks Chemical & Biological Engineering Department Iowa State University
Outline • Background • Industrial chemicals • Overview of the current industry • Role of biorenewables
Let’s start with some perspective • Transportation fuel demand (2003) • Gasoline: 8,900,000 barrels/day • Diesel: 3,900,000 barrels/day • Biorenewable fuels • Ethanol: 440,000 barrels/day (2005) • Biodiesel: ~1000 barrels/day (2005)
Maximum U.S. Production Capacity • Corn • Production: 11 billion bushels/year • Biofuel Potential: 2,000,000 barrels/day • Soybeans • Production: 3 billion bushels/year • Biofuel Potential: 260,000 barrels/day
Lignocellulosic Biomass Cellulose: 38%–50% Most abundant form of carbon in biosphere Polymer of glucose Hemicellulose: 23%–32% Polymer of 5- and 6-carbon sugars Xylose is the second most abundant sugar in the biosphere Lignin: 15%–25% Complex aromatic structure p-hydroxyphenylpropene building blocks
U.S. Chemical Enterprise Personal Care Products Building Materials $400+ billion Enterprise
Sustainability Chemical Industry Renewable Carbon One use Carbon
Why Biorenewable Industrial Chemicals? • Better match between demand and feedstock. • Selling price higher for chemicals than fuels.
Birth of Industrial Chemicals • What do we do with this refinery byproduct? • Not the reasons: • High value products from crude oil. • Production of materials with special properties.
Challenges to Replacing Petrochemicals • Direct replacement • Competing with mature technology • High oxygen content in biorenewable feedstocks • Dilute process streams with biorenewables • Different trace impurities • Functional replacement • Competing with entrenched chemicals (polymers) • Expense associated with introducing new large-scale polymers (estimated to be about $1 billion)
Why is Oxygen Content an Issue? Ethylene from glucose: fermentation to ethanol – theoretical yield 51.1% dehydration to ethylene – theoretical yield 60.9% best possible overall yield = 0.511(60.9) = 31.1% glucose at $0.15/kg ethylene at $0.48/kg just for the raw material!!!!
Commercial Biorenewable Industrial Chemicals • Glycerol _________________________________________________ • Lactic acid (polylactic acid) • Alkyl esters • Surfactants (palm oil replacing petrochemical based) • 1,3-propanediol
Biorenewable Chemicals Top Value Added Chemicals from Biomass, U.S. DOE, 2004
Platform Chemical Concept Top Value Added Chemicals from Biomass, U.S. DOE, 2004