Improvements in Bio-Based Building Blocks Production Through Process Intensification and Sustainability Concepts

By Juan Gabriel Segovia-Hernandez, Eduardo Sanchez-Ramirez, César Ramírez-Márquez and Gabriel Contreras-Zarazúa

Improvements in Bio-Based Building Blocks Production Through Process Intensification and Sustainability Concepts discusses new information on the production and cost of bio-based building blocks. From a technical point-of-view, almost all industrial materials made from fossil resources can be substituted using bio-based counterparts. However, the cost of bio-based production in many cases exceeds the cost of petrochemical production. In addition, new products must be proven to perform at least as good as their petrochemical equivalents, have a lower environmental impact, meet consumer demand for environmentally-friendly products, factor in population growth, and account for limited supplies of non-renewables.

This book outlines the application of process intensification techniques which allow for the generation of clean, efficient and economical processes for bio-based chemical blocks production.

• Includes synthesis and process design strategies for intensified processes
• Describes multi-objective optimization applied to the production of bio-based building blocks
• Presents the controllability of processes where the production of bio-based building blocks is involved
• Provides examples using aspen and MATLAB
• Introduces several sustainable indexes to evaluate production processes
• Presents process intensification techniques to improve performance in productive processes

• Language: English
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Release date: Sep 14, 2021
• ISBN: 9780323886321

Juan Gabriel Segovia-Hernandez

Professor at Department of Chemical, Engineering of University of Guanajuato (México) has strong expertise in synthesis, design and optimization of (bio) processes. He has contributed to defining systematic methodologies to found, in a complete way, optimum sustainable and green processes for the production of several commodities. He also applied his methodologies to the production of biofuels and Bio-Based Building Blocks. Products of his research are more than 120 papers published in high impact factor indexed journals, 3 books with prestigious international publishers and three patent registers. In addition, he acts as a reviewer for over 25 top journals in chemical engineering, energy, and applied chemistry. For the pioneering work and remarkable achievements in his area of scientific research, he was National President of Mexican Academy of Chemical Engineering (2013-2015). Also, he is “Associate Editor” of “Chemical Engineering and Processing: Process Intensification Journal” (Elsevier), since 2019. Email: [e-mail], tel: +(52)4737320006 Ex 1403

Book preview

Chapter 1

Why are bio-based chemical building blocks needed?

Abstract

Around the world, significant steps are being taken to move from today’s fossil-based economy to a more sustainable economy based on biomass. The transition to a bio-based economy has multiple drivers: (a) the need to develop an environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable global economy; (b) the anticipation that oil, gas, coal, and other chemical products will reach peak production in the not too distant future and that prices will climb; (c) the desire of many countries to reduce an overdependence on fossil-fuel imports; (d) the global issue of climate change and the need to reduce atmospheric greenhouse gases emissions; and (e) the need to stimulate regional and rural development. Bio-based chemical building blocks are being used more and more to replace fossil-fuel-based chemicals. It is hoped that these sustainable alternatives will reduce dependence on fossil feedstocks for chemicals, materials, and fuel as well as reduce greenhouse gas emissions throughout production chains. In addition, bioblocks are key intermediaries between raw materials and final products, and they can be used to link different biorefinery concepts and target markets. This chapter discusses the main bio-based chemical blocks at present, their relevance, their current production status, and their industrial applications.

Keywords

Biomass; bioblocks; bioeconomy; greenhouse; biological; industrial

Contents

Outline

1.1 Are bio-based chemical building blocks needed? 1

1.1.1 Drop-in bio-based chemicals 5

1.1.2 Novel bio-based chemicals 5

1.1.3 C6 and C6/C5 Sugar 8

1.1.4 Plant-based oil 9

1.1.5 Algae oil 10

1.1.6 Organic solutions 10

1.1.7 Lignin 11

1.1.8 Pyrolysis oil 12

References 13

1.1 Are bio-based chemical building blocks needed?

Continuous, inspiring, and interconnected step-by-step changes in thought and understanding, know-how, actions, and behavior have often been instrumental in transitions from one particular age to the next in human history. This also applies to the present century and its sustainability challenges at the planetary, regional, and local levels. Therefore, it is of great importance and relevance to move forward on the journey that has been started globally to address a not insignificant number of challenges. It is, however, essential to go beyond descriptive work by continuing with novel, inspiring, and interconnected steps to find solutions to overcome these challenges. As this huge task also requires multidimensional communication, understanding, and actions across different regions, cultures, disciplines, and knowledge areas, the development of a common conceptual framework such as the concept of bioeconomy has been accepted globally as very valuable (Sierra et al., 2021).

The general orientation provided by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is of special interest and a call to action for all stakeholders to reach the SDGs by 2030. Throughout history, finding innovative solutions based on available biological resources to successfully overcome challenges has been a hallmark of human achievements. Therefore, the accumulated traditional knowledge and skills and the rapid advances in the life sciences have made biotechnology a key enabling technology toward improving the quality of life. Bioeconomy, bringing together bioresources, biotechnology, ecosystems, and economy, has emerged as an attractive top-level political concept for creating, developing, and revitalizing economic systems worldwide by making use of renewable biological resources in a sustainable way. As there is no universal definition, we are very much in line with the one adopted by the Global Bioeconomy Summit in 2015, which defined bioeconomy as the knowledge-based production and utilization of biological resources, innovative biological processes and principles to sustainably provide goods and services across all economic sectors (Wohlgemuth et al., 2021).

The evolution from political objectives of a bioeconomy that is based on knowledge in the relevant sciences and technologies, industries, and societies to bioeconomy policies, strategies, and initiatives has been spreading rapidly worldwide. Biotechnology is a key enabling technology, not only for highly developed and diversified bioeconomies but also for advanced and basic primary sector bioeconomies. From the given definition, it is obvious that bioeconomy is much more than biotechnology and includes other sciences, but it also goes beyond innovations in sciences and technologies by incorporating industrial, organizational, political, and social innovations.

An important aspect of bioeconomy is not only to collect and summarize existing knowledge but also to present and evaluate new strategies and technological processes, and to suggest and to select the best directions of change and development, taking into account global, regional, and local specificities. Resource distribution and allocation, increasing specialization, and facilitated transportation and trade worldwide have shown the strengths of exchanging and sharing products and provided tremendous opportunities for economic growth. As well as strengths, these developments have also demonstrated imbalances, weaknesses, and threats to global supply chains. A holistic and innovative bioeconomy approach takes into account various perspectives across different disciplines of science, industry, and society to make science-based political decisions and create sustainable new opportunities and value creation chains. Large economic value is created from biotransformations of bio-based and fossil-based resources to intermediaries and final products, which enter the industrial manufacturing chain towardas suitable goods. This value creation arises in many areas such as health, nutrition, materials, energy, and environment in ever more complex and diversified bioeconomy networks. Bio-based industries is a key enabling technology in all of these bioeconomy networks (Sierra et al., 2021).

Bioprocesses arose from the field of zymotechnology, which began as a search for a better understanding of industrial fermentation, particularly in relation to the brewing of beer. Beer was an important industrial, and not just social, commodity. In late-19th century Germany, brewing contributed as much to the gross national product as did steel, and taxes on alcohol proved to be significant sources of revenue. In the 1860s, institutes and remunerative consultancies were dedicated to the technology of brewing. The most famous was the private Carlsberg Institute, founded in 1875, which employed Emil Christian Hansen, who pioneered the pure yeast process for the reliable production of consistent beer. Less well known were private consultancies that advised the brewing industry. One of these, the Zymotechnic Institute, was established in Chicago by the German-born chemist John Ewald Siebel.

The expansion of zymotechnology continued during World War I in response to industrial needs to support the war. Max Delbrück grew yeast on an immense scale during the war to meet 60% of Germany’s animal feed needs. Compounds of another fermentation product, lactic acid, made up for a lack of hydraulic fluid, glycerol. On the Allied side, the Russian chemist Chaim Weizmann used starch to eliminate Britain’s shortage of acetone, a key raw material for cordite, by fermenting maize to acetone. The industrial potential of fermentation outgrew its traditional home in brewing, and zymotechnology soon gave way to biotechnology (Doran, 2012).

With food shortages spreading and resources fading, some dreamed of a new industrial solution. The Hungarian Károly Ereky coined the word biotechnology in Hungary in 1919 to describe a technology based on converting raw materials into a more useful product. He built a slaughterhouse for 1000 pigs and also a fattening farm with space for 50,000 pigs, and he raised over 100,000 pigs a year. The enterprise was enormous, becoming one of the largest and most profitable meat and fat operations in the world. In his book, Biotechnologie, Ereky further developed a theme that would be reiterated through the 20th century: biotechnology could provide solutions to societal crises, such as food and energy shortages. For Ereky, the term biotechnology indicated the process by which raw materials could be biologically upgraded into socially useful products.

This catchword spread quickly after World War I, as the word biotechnology entered German dictionaries and was taken up abroad by business-hungry private consultancies as far away as the United States. In Chicago, for example, the coming of prohibition at the end of World War I encouraged biological industries to create opportunities for new fermentation products, in particular a market for nonalcoholic drinks. Emil Siebel, the son of the founder of the Zymotechnic Institute, broke away from his father’s company to establish the Bureau of Biotechnology, which specifically offered expertise in fermented nonalcoholic drinks.

The belief that the needs of an industrial society could be met by fermenting agricultural waste was an important ingredient of the chemurgic movement. Fermentation-based processes generated products of ever-growing utility. However, this flourishing industry of fermentation to obtain bioproducts began to compete economically with the advantages of obtaining the same products from nonrenewable sources (oil) in a more efficient way and at a lower cost (Doran, 2012).

In recent years, due to the large increase in petroleum cost, there has been a reemergence of interest in large-volume production of fermentation chemicals. Biotechnology is providing new, low-cost, and highly efficient fermentation processes for the production of chemicals from biomass resources. Moreover, with a wide range of microorganisms already available and much more recently discovered, the fermentation of sugars represents an important route for the production of new bioproducts. However, the current economic impact of fermentation bioproducts is still limited, in large part a result of difficulties in product recovery. Thus, substantial improvements to existing recovery technology are needed in order to allow chemicals from fermentation to penetrate further in the organic chemical industry (Corma et al., 2007).

The bio-based industry is an emerging sector organized around interconnected value chains, which aims to transform renewable biological feedstock, such as forestry, agricultural, and aquatic biomass, as well as sidestreams and byproducts from industrial bioprocessing, and other residues such as sludge and municipal waste, into bio-based products, materials, fuels, and energy, replacing their fossil-based counterparts. They offer a huge potential to tackle societal and environmental challenges and, additionally, play an important role in stimulating sustainable growth and boosting the competitiveness of countries by reindustrializing and revitalizing rural and coastal areas and providing new job opportunities.

The reality that can be seen in these bio-based projects is that new value chains are much more interconnected. These value chains arise from the connections between different types of feedstock and different processing and biorefining technologies, transforming them into a wide variety of bio-based chemical building blocks (CBBs), materials, food and feed ingredients, and consumer products (e.g., cosmetics) for a wide range of market sectors, thereby producing an ever-increasing number of new bio-based value chains. This also corresponds to the reality of the bio-based sector development; hence the relevance of CBBs in the concept of bioeconomy.

A CBB is a molecule that can be converted to various secondary chemicals and intermediates, and, in turn, into a broad range of different downstream uses. The largest markets for bio-based CBBs are in the production of bio-based polymers, lubricants, and solvents. This chapter looks at two types of bio-based CBBs: drop-in bio-based chemicals and novel bio-based chemicals (United States Department of Energy Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, 2004).

1.1.1 Drop-in bio-based chemicals

Drop-in chemicals are bio-based versions of existing petrochemicals that have established markets. As they are chemically identical to existing hydrocarbon-based products, their use can reduce financial and technological risks and promote faster access to markets for producers.

1.1.2 Novel bio-based chemicals

Novel bio-based chemicals bear higher financial and technological risks for producers but can be used to produce products such as aconic acid and methylenesuccinic acid that cannot be obtained through traditional chemical reactions and products that may offer unique and superior properties that are unattainable with fossil-based alternatives, such as biodegradability.

There is an existing market for CBBs, but it can be considered relatively immature, with development levels varying according to the building block considered and ranging from proof of concept in the laboratory to full commercial production. Strong cooperation within the value chain from feedstock producer to end user is required for new CBBs to successfully enter the market.

In 2013, the demand for bio-based CBBs in Europe was 1029 MEUR, equivalent to 35% of the total global production. The market grew at a compound annual growth rate of approximately 18.6% per annum between 2008 and 2015. It has been estimated that by 2030 the bio-based CBBs market in Europe could reach between 4.8 and 10.4 BEUR. The market value could be greater than this if the various hurdles to the development of bio-based CBBs are addressed. The greatest driver for the market uptake of bio-based CBBs is to overcome increasing volatility in fossil-fuel price and supply. Market prices for chemicals rise when fossil supply is tight, so the subsequent increasing uncertainty and volatility of crude oil prices is likely to push commodity chemical companies toward bringing in alternatives to traditional fossil fuels to ensure that their customers have a stable product supply.

One of the key hurdles to the production of bio-based CBBs is that of feedstock availability and cost. Most of the currently available bio-based CBBs are based on commodity agricultural products such as sugars and vegetable oils which can vary significantly in price and are expensive. Given that many CBBs are bulk chemicals, a large amount of feedstock will be needed. There are concerns by some that the potential for supplying extra sugar and oils is limited, though others believe that there is still much potential for yield improvement in such commodities. The use of waste and residue streams would be attractive as they are both cheap and widely available. The ability to interchange feedstocks according to availability would also be useful. Many technical challenges, especially relating to downstream processing need to be overcome to help promote the use of alternative feedstock streams and reduce processing costs, but even if these challenges are successfully addressed, it will be necessary to persuade highly conservative processors to change the production process to accommodate a new feedstock or a product with new properties. A combination of high feedstock, conversion and downstream processing costs mean that the cost of producing bio-based chemicals is currently more expensive than processes using fossil-fuel feedstocks. Opportunities for bio-based premiums to overcome price differentials for CBBs are considered to be lower than for other markets, for instance bioplastics, because the CBB producer is further away from the final