Biobased Industrial Products Priorities for Research and Commercialization (2000) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
3 Range of Biobased Products
3 Range of Biobased Products
Pages 55-73
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 55... ...
Today's biobased products include commodity and specialty chemicals, fuels, and materials. Some of these products result from the direct physical or chemical processing of biomass -- cellulose, starch, oils, protein, lignin, and terpenes.
|
From page 56... ...
Ethanol and oxygenated chemicals derived from fermentable sugars will be key precursors to other industrial chemicals traditionally dependent on petroleum feedstocks. In the long term, with advances in genetic engineering, large-scale fuel production from lignocellulosic plant materials may become cost competitive with petroleum fuels.
|
From page 57... ...
estimated for 1996 to 1997 that 12 million metric tons of corn of a total 252 million metric tons of corn grain produced in the United States were put into ethanol fuel production -- about 1.1 billion gallons of ethanol fuel (ERS, 1997b)
|
From page 58... ...
A key will be demonstrating that recent and anticipated technical innovations work at larger scales with representative raw materials. The cost of bioethanol must drop significantly if it is to penetrate a much larger fraction of the transportation fuel market.
|
From page 59... ...
. If the reacted oils have the correct carbon chain length, the fatty acid methyl esters will have chemical characteristics similar to those of conventional diesel fuel when they combust in modern diesel engines.
|
From page 60... ...
Direct substitution of plant oils for diesel fuel would be cheaper than the manufacture of biodiesel because the transesterification process imposes significant additional costs. Unfortunately, the high viscosity of the oils causes poor atomization and creates flow characteristics that are generally incompatible with present-day diesel engines (Harsch, 1992)
|
From page 61... ...
estimates of input requirements, yields, and plant costs -- combining input requirements with 1993 price data to estimate material and utility expenditures, updating capital expenditure data with a price index for plant and equipment, and giving annual payment for a 15-year mortgage. The ethanol production cost of $0.46 per gallon (see Appendix A, Table A-2)
|
From page 62... ...
Biobased acetic acid may be produced by fermenting corn starch or cheese whey waste or as a byproduct of the sulfite wood pulping process. A better understanding is needed of the relative costs of production of acetic acid from renewable resources as compared to petroleum-based feedstocks.
|
From page 63... ...
Some function as biological catalysts in industrial processing of food ingredients, specialty chemicals, and feed additives. Others are components in end products such as laundry detergents, diagnostics, laboratory reagents, or digestive aids.
|
From page 64... ...
Reducing the costs of cellulase enzymes is a key research priority for reducing the costs of industrial processing of biobased raw materials. Other Uses for Enzymes Various industries use enzymes as end products or biocatalysts at a smaller scale.
|
From page 65... ...
Addition to animal feeds of phytase, an enzyme that degrades phytic acid, allows animals to digest the phytic acid and better assimilate the iron and zinc ions. Less phosphorus consequently needs to be added to the feed, thereby reducing the contribution of animal feed to phosphate pollution.
|
From page 66... ...
Another is to move the genes for PHB synthesis into other bacteria, plants, or yeasts for increased production. At Michigan State University, Sommerville and colleagues pioneered this approach using the common weed Arabidopsis as a "bioreactor." The researchers manipulated genes for PHB synthesis in Arabidop sis and showed the plant produced PHB at a low level.
|
From page 67... ...
Because soybean oil costs more than petroleum, black soybased inks are at a cost disadvantage. Some research indicates that soy inks can spread
|
From page 68... ...
. Forest Products Forest products currently comprise the largest source of renewable resources for the biobased materials industry.
|
From page 69... ...
. Advances in biotechnology and genetic engineering are now enabling development of cotton cultivars with improved pest resistance, yield, and quality, thereby potentially reducing production costs and better matching cotton characteristics to specific applications.
|
From page 70... ...
Biomass processing -- fermentation of starch or cellulose accompanied by additional chemical, thermal, and physical processing steps -- can produce a number of oxygenated intermediate chemicals, including ethylene glycol, adipic acid, ethanol, acetic acid, isopropanol, acetone, butanol, citric acid, 1,4-butanediol, methyl ethyl ketone, N-butanol, succinic acid, itaconic acid, lactic acid, fumaric acid, and propionic acid. These intermediate chemicals have uses in the manufacture of such polymers as nylon, polyesters, and urethanes; of various plastics and high-strength composites; and of solvents, coatings, and antifreeze.
|
From page 71... ...
Capital investment figures estimated for nine biobased chemicals are shown in Table 3-3. The private sector currently is investing in lactic acid production for use in lactic acid polyester formation, a polymer that can substitute for polystyrene in many cases.
|
From page 72... ...
Model uses estimated costs for input requirements, yields, and plant costs -- combining input requirements with 1993 price data to estimate material and utility expenditures, updating capital expenditure data with a price index for plant and equipment, and giving annual payment for a 15-year mortgage. SOURCE: Gallagher and Johnson (1995)
|
From page 73... ...
Apart from pulp and paper, ethanol fuel is probably the largest single biobased industrial product. In recent years the United States has generated over 1 billion gallons of fuel ethanol annually from corn starch, less than 1 percent of annual domestic gasoline consumption.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.