Biorefinery turns wood into renewable chemicals

Abstract

As the chemical industry seeks more sustainable processes, many researchers believe that using plants as an alternative source of chemicals could help curb carbon dioxide emissions and reduce the world’s dependence on oil and gas. To become economically viable, the biorefineries producing these renewable chemicals will need to squeeze as much value as possible from plants. But plant matter can be frustratingly intractable, with components, like lignin, that are difficult to convert into useful molecules. Researchers in Belgium have now developed an integrated series of chemical processes that can break down lignin and turn 78% of the mass of birch wood into chemical products including phenol, propylene, and ethanol (Science 2020, DOI: 10.1126/science.aau1567). The team, led by Bert F. Sels at KU Leuven, has demonstrated the method at lab scale, and its calculations suggest that a full-scale biorefinery would have a much lower carbon footprint than fossil-based production systems while