RENEWABLE CHEMICALS FROM SUSTAINABLE FEEDSTOCKS VIA HIGH-THOROUGHPUT METHODS
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Liverpool
Department Name: Chemistry
Abstract
There has been a global shift towards the use of biomass as a source of fuels and chemicals necessitated by decreasing fossil reserves, increasing oil prices, security of supply and environmental issues. It has also become clear that the manufacturing industry is embracing this change and has clearly stated its aims to develop sustainable and efficient routes to manufacturing products and hence reducing their dependence on fossil feedstocks and environmental impact. To academics, this represents a huge opportunity to generate new scientific advances in the knowledge that their application will have strong industrial support. In addition to be motivated by scientific curiosity, we scientists need to acknowledge our social responsibility to partner with the manufacturing industry to contribute to a better society and more sustainable future.
Advances in the development of routes to renewable chemicals have been observed in recent years, however there are still major issues remaining regarding the efficiency and viability of these routes to deliver renewable chemicals economically. Very importantly, many recent advances in biorefinary technologies have been based on feedstocks that compete with food or feed such as starch or vegetable oils. Large-scale implementation of these technologies can have disastrous consequences for food security worldwide. Therefore, it is paramount that new biorefinary technologies are based upon sources of biomass that do not compete with food production. The overarching aim of this proposal is to develop the next generation of structured polymeric materials that will enable to efficiently produce platform chemicals and bio-surfactants from waste biomass, integrating state of the art technologies for biomass activation and separation in one-pot processes. This project is built upon the expertise in green chemistry, biomass activation, catalysis and materials science from the partners in York and Liverpool and their strong engagement with industry. State of the art facilities in high-throughput materials discovery and characterisation will be utilized, and advanced techniques in biomass activation, such as supercritical CO2 (scCO2) extraction, and microwave pyrolysis and hydrolysis reactors up to scales of 100L will be used.
Advances in the development of routes to renewable chemicals have been observed in recent years, however there are still major issues remaining regarding the efficiency and viability of these routes to deliver renewable chemicals economically. Very importantly, many recent advances in biorefinary technologies have been based on feedstocks that compete with food or feed such as starch or vegetable oils. Large-scale implementation of these technologies can have disastrous consequences for food security worldwide. Therefore, it is paramount that new biorefinary technologies are based upon sources of biomass that do not compete with food production. The overarching aim of this proposal is to develop the next generation of structured polymeric materials that will enable to efficiently produce platform chemicals and bio-surfactants from waste biomass, integrating state of the art technologies for biomass activation and separation in one-pot processes. This project is built upon the expertise in green chemistry, biomass activation, catalysis and materials science from the partners in York and Liverpool and their strong engagement with industry. State of the art facilities in high-throughput materials discovery and characterisation will be utilized, and advanced techniques in biomass activation, such as supercritical CO2 (scCO2) extraction, and microwave pyrolysis and hydrolysis reactors up to scales of 100L will be used.
Planned Impact
The UK needs to consider the utilisation of biomass for manufacturing due to economic and environmental issues and in order to keep its international competiveness. Considering the availability of biomass in the UK and the higher costs of manufacturing compared with other countries, the UK needs to position itself in the development and commercialisation of new advantageous technologies (IP). These technologies could then be implemented in the UK, or alternatively in other countries as required, as U.K. multinational companies already do (i.e. Unilever and AB Sugar). Overall, the generation of the new IP and associated technologies is fundamental for the competiveness of a large part of the UK manufacturing sector. The depolymerisation of biomass to its constituent components and the integration of this process with biomass pre-treatment and subsequent reactions to yield the platform chemicals and biosurfactants is the main technological challenge facing the viability of the biorefinery concept. Advances in this area will yield new IP and commercial processes that will define the future of the biorefinery and biorenewables sector. At the present time, the EU, Germany and Japan are leading this research field and we believe that the UK research sector needs to increase its efforts based on its current areas of excellence (such as Materials Science, Catalysis and Green Chemistry). This must be done in order to position the UK at the top of this area and to support the future of the UK manufacturing industry. By joining the expertise of York and Liverpool Universities in biomass transformations, high-throughput experimentation, catalysis and new materials design, this research proposal tackles the core of the current limitations in biomass transformation: the creation of methods for fast and efficient screening and the development of the new materials and technologies that this new area of research requires. In particular:
- The academic partners involved will be benefiting from creating an unprecedented line of interdisciplinary research and critical mass, and have access to state of the art facilities in both institutions. Overall, the results of this research will be relevant to academics working in biorefineries, biomass, catalysis and surfactant chemistry worldwide. The integration of techniques as described here is a largely unexploited direction for biorefinery work and could have a very large impact on the academic research community by opening up a range of novel possibilities.
- Industrial partners (Unilever, Croda, AB Sugar and Starbons) will benefit from the knowledge exchange with academics and the potential commertialisation of the IP and ideas generated in this project. The potential application of the routes described can potentially lead the industrial partners (and potential partners to be reached via the CI KTN representative) to gain substantial competiveness in the sector. The development of new catalysts and porous materials for catalysis and separation will benefit the UK companies that will commercialise these materials.
- The UK academic community and the manufacturing sector will benefit from the formation of highly skilled professionals (PDRA) with a cross-disciplinary knowledge and expertise in a growing industrial area. The North Region and particularly Merseyside can potentially be benefited with the creation of jobs in the renewables sector via our industrial partners.
- Millions of consumers worldwide could benefit from improved product performance for personal care products, as it is been demonstrated that naturally derived biosurfactants rheology modifiers are less aggressive with the skin and produce less allergies and dermatological problems. The successful commercialisation of the processes proposed here will benefit the environment, reducing CO2 emissions and the UK economy will benefit by reducing dependence on fossil fuels for energy generation and manufacturing of goods.
- The academic partners involved will be benefiting from creating an unprecedented line of interdisciplinary research and critical mass, and have access to state of the art facilities in both institutions. Overall, the results of this research will be relevant to academics working in biorefineries, biomass, catalysis and surfactant chemistry worldwide. The integration of techniques as described here is a largely unexploited direction for biorefinery work and could have a very large impact on the academic research community by opening up a range of novel possibilities.
- Industrial partners (Unilever, Croda, AB Sugar and Starbons) will benefit from the knowledge exchange with academics and the potential commertialisation of the IP and ideas generated in this project. The potential application of the routes described can potentially lead the industrial partners (and potential partners to be reached via the CI KTN representative) to gain substantial competiveness in the sector. The development of new catalysts and porous materials for catalysis and separation will benefit the UK companies that will commercialise these materials.
- The UK academic community and the manufacturing sector will benefit from the formation of highly skilled professionals (PDRA) with a cross-disciplinary knowledge and expertise in a growing industrial area. The North Region and particularly Merseyside can potentially be benefited with the creation of jobs in the renewables sector via our industrial partners.
- Millions of consumers worldwide could benefit from improved product performance for personal care products, as it is been demonstrated that naturally derived biosurfactants rheology modifiers are less aggressive with the skin and produce less allergies and dermatological problems. The successful commercialisation of the processes proposed here will benefit the environment, reducing CO2 emissions and the UK economy will benefit by reducing dependence on fossil fuels for energy generation and manufacturing of goods.
Publications
Almeida J
(2017)
Screening of mono- and bi-functional catalysts for the one-pot conversion of cellobiose into sorbitol
in Catalysis Today
Budarin V
(2015)
The potential of microwave technology for the recovery, synthesis and manufacturing of chemicals from bio-wastes
in Catalysis Today
Carvalho Y
(2017)
Nanosilicalites as Support for ß-Glucosidases Covalent Immobilization.
in Applied biochemistry and biotechnology
Christy S
(2018)
Recent progress in the synthesis and applications of glycerol carbonate
in Current Opinion in Green and Sustainable Chemistry
Ciriminna R
(2014)
Catalysis via Sol-Gel Acid Silicas: An Important Chemical Technology for 2nd Generation Biorefineries
in ChemCatChem
Ciriminna R
(2014)
Limonene: a versatile chemical of the bioeconomy.
in Chemical communications (Cambridge, England)
Da Vià L
(2017)
Visible light selective photocatalytic conversion of glucose by TiO2
in Applied Catalysis B: Environmental
Da Vià L
(2016)
Visible-Light-Controlled Oxidation of Glucose using Titania-Supported Silver Photocatalysts.
in ChemCatChem
De Bruyn M
(2016)
A new perspective in bio-refining: levoglucosenone and cleaner lignin from waste biorefinery hydrolysis lignin by selective conversion of residual saccharides
in Energy & Environmental Science
Dávila I
(2019)
Production and characterization of lignin and cellulose fractions obtained from pretreated vine shoots by microwave assisted alkali treatment.
in Bioresource technology
Fan J
(2018)
Influence of Density on Microwave Pyrolysis of Cellulose
in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering
Jiang Z
(2018)
Mechanistic understanding of salt-assisted autocatalytic hydrolysis of cellulose
in Sustainable Energy & Fuels
Jiang Z
(2018)
Sodium Chloride-Assisted Depolymerization of Xylo-oligomers to Xylose
in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering
Li T
(2017)
Controllable production of liquid and solid biofuels by doping-free, microwave-assisted, pressurised pyrolysis of hemicellulose
in Energy Conversion and Management
Lokesh K
(2017)
Environmental impact assessment of wheat straw based alkyl polyglucosides produced using novel chemical approaches
in Green Chemistry
Lokesh K
(2019)
Economic and agronomic impact assessment of wheat straw based alkyl polyglucoside produced using green chemical approaches
in Journal of Cleaner Production
Lomelí-Rodríguez M
(2017)
Process Intensification of the Synthesis of Biomass-Derived Renewable Polyesters: Reactive Distillation and Divided Wall Column Polyesterification
in Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research
Lomelí-Rodríguez M
(2016)
Synthesis and kinetic modeling of biomass-derived renewable polyesters
in Journal of Polymer Science Part A: Polymer Chemistry
Lomelí-Rodríguez M
(2017)
Optimum Batch-Reactor Operation for the Synthesis of Biomass-Derived Renewable Polyesters
in Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research
Lorente A
(2020)
Sustainable Production of Solid Biofuels and Biomaterials by Microwave-Assisted, Hydrothermal Carbonization (MA-HTC) of Brewers' Spent Grain (BSG)
in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering
Maneffa A
(2016)
Biomass-Derived Renewable Aromatics: Selective Routes and Outlook for p-Xylene Commercialisation.
in ChemSusChem
Muñoz García A
(2015)
Starch-derived carbonaceous mesoporous materials (Starbon®) for the selective adsorption and recovery of critical metals
in Green Chemistry
Padilla RH
(2017)
A versatile sonication-assisted deposition-reduction method for preparing supported metal catalysts for catalytic applications.
in Ultrasonics sonochemistry
Priecel P
(2016)
Anisotropic gold nanoparticles: Preparation and applications in catalysis
in Chinese Journal of Catalysis
Priecel P
(2018)
Fast Catalytic Hydrogenation of 2,5-Hydroxymethylfurfural to 2,5-Dimethylfuran with Ruthenium on Carbon Nanotubes
in Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research
Priecel P
(2018)
Advantages and Limitations of Microwave Reactors: From Chemical Synthesis to the Catalytic Valorization of Biobased Chemicals
in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering
Remón J
(2019)
Toward Renewable-Based, Food-Applicable Prebiotics from Biomass: A One-Step, Additive-Free, Microwave-Assisted Hydrothermal Process for the Production of High Purity Xylo-oligosaccharides from Beech Wood Hemicellulose
in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering
Remón J
(2020)
A New Step Forward Nonseasonal 5G Biorefineries: Microwave-Assisted, Synergistic, Co-Depolymerization of Wheat Straw (2G Biomass) and Laminaria saccharina (3G Biomass)
in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering
Remón J
(2018)
Simultaneous production of lignin and polysaccharide rich aqueous solutions by microwave-assisted hydrothermal treatment of rapeseed meal
in Energy Conversion and Management
Remón J
(2018)
Analysis and optimisation of a microwave-assisted hydrothermal process for the production of value-added chemicals from glycerol
in Green Chemistry
Saeed K.
(2017)
Catalytic routes towards bio-renewable glucaric acid
in Chimica Oggi/Chemistry Today
Vaidya P
(2017)
Review of Hydrogen Production by Catalytic Aqueous-Phase Reforming
in ChemistrySelect
Wu C
(2014)
Conventional and microwave-assisted pyrolysis of biomass under different heating rates
in Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis
Wu C
(2015)
CO2 gasification of bio-char derived from conventional and microwave pyrolysis
in Applied Energy
Zhang W
(2016)
Single-Molecule Conductance of Viologen-Cucurbit[8]uril Host-Guest Complexes.
in ACS nano
Zhang Z
(2015)
Low-temperature microwave-assisted pyrolysis of waste office paper and the application of bio-oil as an Al adhesive
in Green Chemistry
Zhou L
(2018)
Natural Product Recovery from Bilberry ( Vaccinium myrtillus L. ) Presscake via Microwave Hydrolysis
in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering
Description | We have made a few key discoveries which impact we are still investigating and publishing. Summarising: 1) the extraordinary synergy between microwaves and catalysis to accelerate the valorisation of biomass derivatives 2) selective photocatalysis of biomass derivatives 3) unprecedented new polymericx materials for the catalytic valorisation of biomass 4) new organic carbonates |
Exploitation Route | The fast hydrolysis of cellulose and hydrogenation/oxidation reactions can now furtehr explore by Engineering and Chemical companies in order to develop more competitive processes for the valorisation of biomass. |
Sectors | Agriculture Food and Drink Chemicals Energy Manufacturing including Industrial Biotechology Culture Heritage Museums and Collections |