Industrial biomanufacturing

Industrial biomanufacturing: The future of chemical production, James M. Clomburg, Anna M. Crumbley, Ramon Gonzalez, Science 355, issue 6320, aag0804, Published by AAAS, 06 January 2017.

In the later part of Chapter 4, we discuss the chemistry of fuels, reformulated gasolines, ethanol (from maize), diesel vs. natural gas, and biofuels. This paper adds a further dimension to our text and discusses the means by which biological processes can be used to convert feedstocks like methane and carbon dioxide into a variety of chemical products which we used to obtain solely from fossil fuels. It shows a comparison of industrial chemical manufacturing to industrial biomanufacturing. Specifically they show potential for using the feedstocks of carbon dioxide, biomass, natural gas/biogas, and industrial byproducts in biochemical processes including; microbial fermentation, saccharification, enzymatic catalysis, cell culturing, and biotransformations; followed by traditional chemical processing involving solid-liquid separation, distillation, liquid-liquid extraction, and polymerization, which can lead to a multitude of products like detergents, lubricants, surfactants, plastics, agrichemicals, petrochemicals, gasoline, and diesel.

Also see the article on the Nitrogen cycle under Chapter 15.

The ideal biofuel

Fuel options: The ideal biofuel, Savage N., Nature 474 (2011) S9-S11 (Published by Nature, June 2011).

This is one of a series of articles on biofuels that appear in the June 23, 2011 issue of Nature. The ideal fuel would have several properties – economic cost, high energy density, appropriate in terms of current or potential industrial infrastructure and making use of otherwise less useful feedstock materials. In several ways, ethanol and to a lesser extent biodiesel fall short in several of these categories. This paper examines alternatives including higher alcohols, again using microbiological production methods. It also considers other alternatives like gamma-valerolactone, which is produced by an abiotic process. The issues discussed relate to subjects on alternate fuels for the internal combustion engine found on pp 90-93 and also on pp 199-205. Other articles in this series also provide relevant information related to biofuels.