Biomass Beyond Fuels and Energy

Serving The Chemical, Life Sciences, and Laboratory WorldsScience & TechnologyAugust 21, 2006Volume 84, Number 34p. 47Biorefinery Gets Ready To Deliver The GoodsItalian levulinic acid facility is first to make targetedbiomass-based based chemical feedstocksSteve RitterIt's widely anticipated that within a few decades the world's crude oil andnatural gas supplies will no longer be sufficient to meet global needs fortransportation, energy, and chemical products.One primary solution is the development of biorefineries—facilities thatuse chemical or biological processes to convert sugars, starch, orcellulose from dedicated crops, agricultural residues, or municipal wasteinto basic chemicals that in turn can be refined to make fuels, plastics,agricultural chemicals, and more.Bioethanol, biodiesel, and biomass-derived plastics have already hit themarketplace. Now, it's basic chemical feedstocks' turn to go green.