Biobased Chemicals

Concerns over the financial, environmental, and societal sustainability of fossil-based feedstocks have motivated research on the production of biobased chemicals. Biobased chemicals are chemicals derived from plants and other renewable agricultural, marine and forestry materials which generally provide an alternative to conventional petroleum derived products. The numbers and types of chemicals that can be produced through a biomass origin and/or a bioprocessing route is surprisingly large, including many platform chemicals, such as propane and butanediols, carboxylic acids, short chain olefins, isoprene, and ethanol; amino acids; vitamins; polymers such as alginate and xanthan gum; and the increasingly commercially important industrial enzymes, such as those used as additives in washing powders ^[1].

Our Biobased Chemicals

Alfa Chemistry can offer full category of biobased chemicals which integrate well in the natural carbon dioxide cycle and their carbon footprint is negligible. The types of biobased chemicals that we can offer are as followings:

Amino Acids and Derivatives

Organic Acids and Derivatives

Sugars and Derivatives

Esters

Ketones

Others

Biomass Feedstocks

A circular bioeconomy requires sustainable biomass as a guarantee that the restoration cycle is completed and can be completed indefinitely. Biomass feedstock is a great alternative to finite fossil fuel resources providing many of the same benefits for energy and material applications. Biomass feedstocks commonly used for bioenergy applications include:

Agricultural residues (e.g., corn stover)
Algae (e.g., microalgae, macroalgae, and cyanobacteria)
Dedicated energy crops (e.g., switchgrass, miscanthus, energy cane, sweet sorghum, high biomass sorghum, hybrid poplars, and shrub willows)
Forestry residues (e.g., logging residues and forest thinning)
Waste streams and re-useable carbon sources (e.g., the non-recyclable organic portion of municipal solid waste, biosolids, sludges, waste food, plastics, CO₂, industrial waste gases, and manure slurries)
Other natural biomasses

Pretreatment Methods

Biomass in its natural form is difficult to use for the purpose of energy production hence pretreatment is often required to overcome its recalcitrant nature and make the biomass amenable for conversion through either of the conversion routes previously mentioned for maximum product recovery. Pretreatment is a necessary process step for both biochemical and thermochemical conversion of biomass and involves structural alteration aimed at overcoming the recalcitrant nature of biomass. A generalized classification of pretreatment methods groups them into; physical, chemical, biological and multiple or combinatorial pretreatment. Figure 1 shows a schematic layout of the classes and types of pretreatment processes required for the two main conversion routes (biochemical and thermochemical) for biomass ^[2].

Fig. 1 Different pretreatment methods for biomass and their corresponding energy conversion routes

Alfa Chemistry is a professional supplier of biobased chemicals. For high quality products, professional technical service, use suggestion and latest industry news, please feel free to contact us.

References

Philp, J. C., Ritchie, R. J., & Allan, J. E. M. Biobased chemicals: the convergence of green chemistry with industrial biotechnology. Trends in Biotechnology, 2013, 31(4), 219–222.
Anukam, A., & Berghel, J. Biomass Pretreatment and Characterization: A Review. In T. P. Basso, T. O. Basso, & L. C. Basso (Eds.), Biotechnological Applications of Biomass, 2020.