Vaz Jr. - Biomass and Green Chemistry: Building a Renewable Pathway

Springer International Publishing AG 2018

Slvio Vaz Jr. 1

(1)

Abstract

The need to develop renewable raw materials for industrial chemistry as a substitute for oil has been shown to be a strategic challenge for the twenty-first century. In this context, the use of plant biomass can be construed as both the alternative of using cheaper and less polluting raw materials and as a model of aggregation of economic value to the agro-industrial chains. Green chemistry (GC), based on 12 principles, emerged in the 1990s as a new philosophy in both academia and industry to break old paradigms of chemistry such as the generation of large amounts of waste and the intensive use of petrochemicals through a holistic view of processes in laboratories and industries. In the case of plant biomass, the seventh principle use of renewable raw materials is notable as a great strategic opportunity for segments related to several areas of GC worldwide. Thereby, biomass is a renewable source of a large variety of bioproducts, and green chemistry principles can be applied for its exploitation to promote sustainable processes and products. In this chapter, the application of GC principles, especially in conversion processes for biomass, is discussed with the aim to demonstrate their feasibility.

Keywords

The need to develop renewable raw materials for industrial chemistry as a substitute for oil has been shown to be a strategic challenge for the twenty-first century. In this context, the use of different types of plant biomassstarch, lignocellulosic, oleaginous, and saccharidecan be considered as an alternative for using cheaper, less polluting raw materials and as a model of aggregation of economic value to the agro-industrial chains, such as soybeans, sugarcane, corn, and forests. These lines of action may, above all, contribute to the sustainability of a wide range of chemicals, especially organic chemicals (e.g., organic acids, esters, alcohols, sugars, phenolics), which are widely used in todays society.

The great heterogeneity and consequent chemical complexity of plant biomass provides the raw material for end products such as energy, food, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and materials. As commented, we can highlight four types of plant biomass of great economic interest, to which we now turn our attention: oil crops or oleaginous, saccharides (or sugary), starchy, and lignocellulosic. Soybean ( Glycine max ) and palm oil ( Elaeis guineensis ) are examples of oil plant species; sugarcane ( Saccharum spp.) and sorghum ( Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) are biomass saccharides; maize ( Zea mays ) is a starchy biomass; and bagasse, straw, and wood biomass are lignocellulosic biomass (Vaz Jr. shows the classification of the sources of plant biomass.

Green chemistry (GC) emerged in the 1990s in countries such as the United States and England, spreading rapidly throughout the world as a new philosophy in both academia and industry and breaking old paradigms of chemistry, such as the generation of large amounts of waste and the intensive use of petrochemicals, through a holistic view of processes in laboratories and industries (Anastas and Kirchhoff ).

The use of renewable raw materials is an extremely strategic issue for large biomass producer countries, such as Brazil, the United States, Germany, and France. These raw materials, the agro-industrial biomass, are an abundant and cheap feedstock for the transformation processes of chemistry or the conversion processes applied to biomass, which are biocatalytic, chemocatalytic, fermentative, and thermochemical.

Thus, the use of biomass through chemistry opens up new possibilities of business and wealth generation for a large number of countries, as well as promoting a less negative impact on the environment and the sustainability of biomass chains.

Chemical compounds are the products with the highest potential to add value into a generic biomass chain, given the importance of the conventional chemical industry and the fine chemical industry in different sectors of the economy. It is possible to highlight compounds that can be used as building blocks, synthetic intermediates, polymers, and specialties, among others; such ideas can be greatly explored by biorefineries (Kamm et al. ). On the other hand, the need to develop technologies to obtain these products presents considerable bottlenecks to be overcome related to technical, scientific, and market issues.

The 12 fundamental principles of GC are as follows (ACS Green Chemistry Institute ):