{"id":11950,"date":"2017-04-07T07:18:05","date_gmt":"2017-04-07T07:18:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revoscience.com\/en\/?p=11950"},"modified":"2017-04-07T07:18:05","modified_gmt":"2017-04-07T07:18:05","slug":"renewable-plastic-precursor-grow-cellulosic-biofuel-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/renewable-plastic-precursor-grow-cellulosic-biofuel-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"Renewable plastic precursor could grow cellulosic biofuel industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"A team of chemical and biological engineers at the University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison has found a way to produce from biomass a valuable compound used in plastic production that they estimate could lower the cost of ethanol produced from plant material by more than two dollars per gallon.<\/span><\/p>\n

The development is the latest in an ongoing effort at UW\u2013Madison to create commodity chemicals currently derived from petroleum out of biomass. These bio-derived chemicals could serve as high value co-products of the biofuels manufacturing process, improving the economics of the cellulosic bio-refinery.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis breakthrough shows how biomass-derived commodity chemicals can economically be used to replace petroleum-derived products,\u201d says<\/span> George Huber<\/a>, a UW\u2013Madison professor of chemical and biological engineering and affiliate of the<\/span> Wisconsin Energy Institute<\/a>. \u201cIt also shows how we might improve the rural economies in which biomass grows.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In their paper published recently by the journal ChemSusChem, Huber and collaborators report a new chemical pathway used to produce 1,5-pentanediol, a plastic precursor primarily used to make polyurethanes and polyester plastics. The group\u2019s highly efficient approach is six times cheaper than a previously reported method, and represents the first economically viable way of producing 1,5-pentanediol from biomass.<\/span><\/p>\n

Plant biomass is typically about 40 percent oxygen by weight, while petroleum oil is less than 0.1 percent oxygen.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn our approach, we use the oxygen already inherent in the biomass to produce high value oxygenated commodity chemicals that can be used to make performance polymer materials like polyurethanes and polyesters,\u201d says Huber.<\/span><\/p>\n

The study\u2019s foundational discovery, its new pathway for chemical production, also provides fundamental chemistry that could be applicable to a wide cross-section of products. For instance, the same pathway could be used to produce two other plastic precursors \u2014 1,4 butanediol and 1,6-hexanediol \u2014 currently derived from petroleum and which together represent an annual market of more than $6 billion.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the days ahead, the team will continue to refine their work, collecting the data needed to scale their process up to pilot plant testing. The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) is in charge of licensing the technology.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had companies asking more about this exciting way to economically produce a valuable chemical from sustainable sources,\u201d says Leigh Cagan, WARF\u2019s chief technology commercialization officer. \u201cProfessor Huber\u2019s published work will bring us closer to engaging with industrial partners to commercialize this technology.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Huber was joined in the collaborative study by UW\u2013Madison engineering professors James Dumesic and Christos Maravelias, experts in a catalysis and techno-economic modeling, respectively, graduate students Zachary Bentzel (the paper\u2019s first author) and Kevin Barnett, and postdoctoral researcher Kefeng Huang.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RENEWABLE PLASTIC PRECURSOR COULD GROW CELLULOSIC BIOFUEL INDUSTRY<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":10769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biology","category-research"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/UW-Madision-logo.jpg",736,495,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/UW-Madision-logo-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/UW-Madision-logo-300x202.jpg",300,202,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/UW-Madision-logo.jpg",736,495,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/UW-Madision-logo.jpg",736,495,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/UW-Madision-logo.jpg",736,495,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/UW-Madision-logo.jpg",736,495,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/UW-Madision-logo.jpg",736,495,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/UW-Madision-logo.jpg",736,495,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/UW-Madision-logo.jpg",600,404,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/UW-Madision-logo.jpg",600,404,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/UW-Madision-logo.jpg",729,490,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/UW-Madision-logo.jpg",535,360,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/UW-Madision-logo.jpg",95,65,false],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/UW-Madision-logo.jpg",640,430,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/UW-Madision-logo.jpg",96,65,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/UW-Madision-logo.jpg",150,101,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Amrita Tuladhar"]},"category_info":"Biology<\/a> Research<\/a>","tag_info":"Research","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}