Polymers Based on Renewable Raw Materials – Part II

A short review of biopolymers based on starch (starch derivatives, thermoplastic starch), lignin and hemicelluloses, chitin (chitosan) and products obtained by degradation of starch and other polysaccharides and sugars (poly(lactic acid), poly(hydroxyalkanoates)), as well as some of their basic properties and application area, are given in this part. The problem of environmental and economic feasibility of biopolymers based on renewable raw materials and their competitiveness with polymers based on fossil raw materials is discussed. Also pointed out are the problems that appear due to the increasing use of agricultural land for the production of raw materials for the chemical industry and energy, instead for the production of food for humans and animals. The optimistic assessments of experts considering the development perspectives of biopolymers based on renewable raw materials in the next ten years have also been pointed out.At the end of the paper, the success of a team of researchers gathered around the experts from the company Bayer is indicated. They were the first in the world to develop a catalyst by which they managed to effectively activate CO - and incorporate it into polyols, used for the synthesis of polyurethanes in semi-industrial scale. By applying this process, for the first time a pollutant will be used as a basic raw material for the synthesis of organic compounds, which will have significant consequences on the development of the chemical industry, and therefore the production of polymers

Brief overview on bio-based adhesives and sealants

Adhesives and sealants (AS) are materials with excellent properties, versatility, and simple curing mechanisms, being widely used in different areas ranging from the construction to the medical sectors. Due to the fast-growing demand for petroleum-based products and the consequent negative environmental impact, there is an increasing need to develop novel and more sustainable sources to obtain raw materials (monomers). This reality is particularly relevant for AS industries, which are generally dependent on non-sustainable fossil raw materials. In this respect, biopolymers, such as cellulose, starch, lignin, or proteins, emerge as important alternatives. Nevertheless, substantial improvements and developments are still required in order to simplify the synthetic routes, as well as to improve the biopolymer stability and performance of these new bio-based AS formulations. This environmentally friendly strategy will hopefully lead to the future partial or even total replacement of non-renewable petroleum-based feedstock. In this brief overview, the general features of typical AS are reviewed and critically discussed regarding their drawbacks and advantages. Moreover, the challenges faced by novel and more ecological alternatives, in particular lignocellulose-based solutions, are highlighted.Funding Agency Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology PTDC/AGR-TEC/4814/2014; PTDC/ASP-SIL/30619/2017; IF/01005/2014.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Recent advances in bio-based polymers and composites: Preface to the BiPoCo 2012 Special Section

The increasing environmental awareness of the society has become an important factor in recent decades affecting legislation, commerce and industry as well as research and development to a great extent [1-7]. This tendency has also been recognized by the European Community, which supports numerous projects in order to promote innovative solutions leading to a sustainable economy. Three such projects of the Seventh Framework Programme with overlapping scopes, Biostruct [8], Forbioplast [9] and Woody [10], focused on the valorization of forest-derived resources for the production of various bio-based products, including polymers, additives, and composites with natural reinforcements. The leaders of these projects decided to join forces to organize a conference in order to create a possibility to disseminate their results as well as to increase the efficiency of their research and development by exchanging ideas with leading experts in the field. The International Conference on Bio-based Polymers and Composites (BiPoCo 2012) was organized for the first time in Siófok, Hungary, between May 27th and 31th, 2012, with 234 registered participants delivering more than 90 oral and 110 poster presentations. Scientific and technological lectures focused on the theory and practice of biopolymers, renewable-based monomers, fillers and additives as well as sustainable polymer blends and composites with possible application in packaging, agriculture, automotive or biomedicine. In the following sections we provide a short overview of the main research areas and presentations related to the event, and by doing so, continue the line set by Filip Du Prez, Jean-Marie Raquez and Philippe Dubois as Editors of the recent Biobased Polymers and Related Materials special issue of the European Polymer Journal [11]. Below we introduce to the reader the BiPoCo 2012 Special Section containing four feature articles and several research papers

Country Report The Netherlands 2010 : IEA Bioenergy Task 42

Rapport van het International Energy Agency (IEA) over de productie van bio-energie, het gebruik van biomassa en de toepassing van bioraffinage in Nederland

Second-generation bioethanol from industrial wood waste of South American species

There is a global interest in replacing fossil fuels with renewable sources of energy. The present review evaluates the significance of South-American wood industrial wastes for bioethanol production. Four countries have been chosen for this review, i.e., Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay, based on their current or potential forestry industry. It should be noted that although Brazil has a global bioethanol market share of 25%, its production is mainly first-generation bioethanol from sugarcane. The situation in the other countries is even worse, in spite of the fact that they have regulatory frameworks in place already allowing the substitution of a percentage of gasoline by ethanol. Pines and eucalyptus are the usually forested plants in these countries, and their industrial wastes, as chips and sawdust, could serve as promising raw materials to produce second-generation bioethanol in the context of a forest biorefinery. The process to convert woody biomass involves three stages: pretreatment, enzymatic saccharification, and fermentation. The operational conditions of the pretreatment method used are generally defined according to the physical and chemical characteristics of the raw materials and subsequently determine the characteristics of the treated substrates. This article also reviews and discusses the available pretreatment technologies for eucalyptus and pines applicable to South-American industrial wood wastes, their enzymatic hydrolysis yields, and the feasibility of implementing such processes in the mentioned countries in the frame of a biorefinery.Fil: Vallejos, María Evangelina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Instituto de Materiales de Misiones. Universidad Nacional de Misiones. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Químicas y Naturales. Instituto de Materiales de Misiones; ArgentinaFil: Kruyeniski, Julia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Instituto de Materiales de Misiones. Universidad Nacional de Misiones. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Químicas y Naturales. Instituto de Materiales de Misiones; ArgentinaFil: Area, Maria Cristina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Instituto de Materiales de Misiones. Universidad Nacional de Misiones. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Químicas y Naturales. Instituto de Materiales de Misiones; Argentin

New alternative energy pathway for chemical pulp mills: from traditional fibers to methane production

Chemical pulp mills have a need to diversify their end-product portfolio due to the current changing bio-economy. In this study, the methane potential of brown, oxygen delignified and bleached pulp were evaluated in order to assess the potential of converting traditional fibers; as well as microcrystalline cellulose and filtrates; to energy. Results showed that high yields (380 mL CH4/gVS) were achieved with bleached fibers which correlates with the lower presence of lignin. Filtrates from the hydrolysis process on the other hand, had the lowest yields (253 mL CH4/gVS) due to the high amount of acid and lignin compounds that cause inhibition. Overall, substrates had a biodegradability above 50% which demonstrates that they can be subjected to efficient anaerobic digestion. An energy and cost estimation showed that the energy produced can be translated into a significant profit and that methane production can be a promising new alternative option for chemical pulp mills.Postprint (author's final draft

Agro-materials : a bibliographic review

Facing the problems of plastic recycling and fossil resources exhaustion, the use of biomass to conceive new materials appears like a reasonable solution. Two axes of research are nowadays developed : on the one hand the synthesis of biodegradable plastics, whichever the methods may be, on the other hand the utilization of raw biopolymers, which is the object of this paper. From this perspective, the “plastic” properties of natural polymers, the caracteristics of the different classes of polymers, the use of charge in vegetable matrix and the possible means of improving the durability of these agro-materials are reviewed

Production of bio-Olefins: tall-oils and waste greases to green chemicals and polymers

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Deep Eutectic Solvent Pretreatment of Transgenic Biomass With Increased C6C1 Lignin Monomers.

The complex and heterogeneous polyphenolic structure of lignin confers recalcitrance to plant cell walls and challenges biomass processing for agroindustrial applications. Recently, significant efforts have been made to alter lignin composition to overcome its inherent intractability. In this work, to overcome technical difficulties related to biomass recalcitrance, we report an integrated strategy combining biomass genetic engineering with a pretreatment using a bio-derived deep eutectic solvent (DES). In particular, we employed biomass from an Arabidopsis line that expressed a bacterial hydroxycinnamoyl-CoA hydratase-lyase (HCHL) in lignifying tissues, which results in the accumulation of unusual C6C1 lignin monomers and a slight decrease in lignin molecular weight. The transgenic biomass was pretreated with renewable DES that can be synthesized from lignin-derived phenols. Biomass from the HCHL plant line containing C6C1 monomers showed increased pretreatment efficiency and released more fermentable sugars up to 34% compared to WT biomass. The enhanced biomass saccharification of the HCHL line is likely due to a reduction of lignin recalcitrance caused by the overproduction of C6C1 aromatics that act as degree of polymerization (DP) reducers and higher chemical reactivity of lignin structures with such C6C1 aromatics. Overall, our findings demonstrate that strategic plant genetic engineering, along with renewable DES pretreatment, could enable the development of sustainable biorefinery