Chemicals from Biomass

In an earlier blog, carbon dioxide as a raw material (click here to read that blog), I wrote that finding new and widespread use of carbon dioxide as a raw material for making carbon-containing chemicals is important in trying to reduce fossil fuel use and carbon dioxide emissions.

In this blog, I identify thirteen companies that generate carbon-containing chemicals from another non-fossil source – biomass. The following table identifies those thirteen companies, along with the chemicals the companies are producing, and the countries the companies are headquartered in:

 

company	chemical product	company's country headquarters
genomatica	1,3-butylene glycol	usa
genomatica	1,4-butanediol (bdo)	usa
metabolic explorer	1.3-propanediol (pdo)	france
corbion	2,5-furandicrboxylic acid (fdca)	netherlands
genomatica	adipic acid (ada)	usa
cargill	agricultural chemicals	usa
poet	alcohols	usa
metabolic explorer	amino acid - methionine	france
genomatica	butadiene (bde)	usa
gevo	butylene	usa
genomatica	caprolactam (cpl)	usa
afyren	carboxylic acid, e.g., acetic acid	france
cargill	detergent chemicals	usa
gevo	fuels	usa
poet	fuels	usa
sbi bioenergy	fuels	canada
synthetic genomics	fuels	usa
totalenergy	fuels	france
kalion	glucaric acid	usa
kalion	glucuronic acid	usa
genomatica	hexamethylenediamine (hmd)	usa
sbi bioenergy	hydrogen	canada
global bioenergies	isobutene	france
global bioenergies	isododecane	france
global bioenergies	kerosene	france
cargill	lubricant chemicals	usa
gf biochemicals	lvulinic acid	italy
cargill	personal care chemicals	usa
cargill	plastic chemicals	usa
corbion	polylactic acid (pla)	netherlands
totalenergy	polylactic acid (pla)	france

  

The biomass that these companies indicate they produce chemicals from refers to renewable organic material that comes from plants and animals. That renewable organic material is being used means that less fossil fuels are needed as a raw material and therefore less long-time stored carbon dioxide in the fossil fuels will be emitted into the atmosphere. The thirteen companies indicate that an important consequence of their efforts to produce chemicals from biomass is just that – less carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere.

Another source of carbon-containing chemicals (i.e., biomass rather than fossils) seems essential. Unfortunately, the many decades of development that have gone into improving the economics of fossil fuels makes the current production of carbon chemicals from biomass uncompetitive. The need to more swiftly make carbon chemical production from biomass competitive, compared to production from fossils, suggests that government interventions, such as taxes on carbon chemicals produced from fossils, are needed.