Biomass makes better chemicals than fuel

Nov 15, 2011 – In an article in the journal Angewandte Chemie, Esben
Taarning and co-workers from the catalyst company Haldor Topsøe and the
Lindoe Offshore Renewables Center (Denmark) argue that the most
efficient use of biomass is for the production of petrochemical alternatives, rather than energy.

Biomass differs from other renewable resources, the authors say, since
the energy it contains is stored as chemical bonds. This enables biomass
to be used for several purposes apart from electricity and heat
generation, such as the production of liquid fuels and chemicals. While
to date most of the biomass used by industry has been burned to generate
energy, in the long-term neither that use, nor the use of biomass to
produce fuels, are optimal, the authors argue.

"It is not the most sensible solution to convert
biomass into fuels," Taarning notes. "In the first place, the amount of biomass available
does not meet the demand for fuels; in the second, the chemical
characteristics of fuels and biomass are too different, so the processes
would be too complex and uneconomical."

"In contrast, it really makes sense to use biomass as
the feedstock for chemical industry. The available biomass should
suffice to replace the fossil feedstocks used in the production of
chemicals. The chemical characteristics of biomass and many bulk
chemicals are also very similar, so the processes should be more
economical than those for the conversion into fuels."

The full article is available for download here.