As the world readies for COP 21 in Paris, this is more evident than ever before. Civil society, policymakers and industry are all demanding new solutions for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. These societal challenges we face need a low carbon solution.<\/p>\n
For instance, fuels and additives derived from local-sourced cellulosic waste can offset concerns about first generation biofuels.\u00a0 With a biobased fuel that is clean burning, the air pollution caused can also be reduced.<\/p>\n
The situation is no different for industrial and consumer products.\u00a0 So while fuels and energy often get the spotlight when discussing greenhouse gas emissions, clean credible solutions are also needed for the manufacture of products.<\/p>\n
With current technology, it is possible to replace many fossil-based plastics and chemicals with biobased alternatives. Sourcing sustainable biomass can significantly reduce carbon footprint and biobased products are an attractive future for the goods we use every day, especially when they give additional performance and functionality.<\/p>\n
Platform chemicals can greatly help to address greenhouse gas emissions because of their flexibility.\u00a0 As the first and only company to produce levulinic acid at commercial scale directly from biomass, GFBiochemicals is quickly emerging as a leader in the sector.<\/p>\n
Recognized by the U.S. Department of Energy as one of the most promising biobased platform chemicals, levulinic acid has far-reaching uses.\u00a0 As with the success of other biobased replacements for fossil-based chemicals in industrial and consumer products, levulinic acid is perfect as a building block for wide-ranging applications.<\/p>\n
In industry, levulinic acid has applications across a wide range of market sectors, though it is particularly useful for bioplastics and coatings.\u00a0 The levulinic acid derivative diphenolic acid (DPA) can replace bisphenol A (BPA) and increase biobased content in coatings, for example.\u00a0 Concerns have been raised about BPA because it exhibits hormone-like properties.\u00a0 Several governments have investigated its safety and use in food packaging and consumer products which has prompted retailers to withdraw\u00a0polycarbonate\u00a0products which are based on BPA.<\/p>\n
Phthalate-free ketal plasticizers are another example of levulinic acid\u2019s game changing applications.\u00a0 These plasticizers are biodegradable and can be used in flexible PVC applications.<\/p>\n
For consumer products, levulinic acid has extensive applications for flavors, fragrances and cosmetics.\u00a0 It has a creamy, buttery whiskey odor which offers a range of options in fragrances.\u00a0 The platform chemical is also used in food compositions for maple and caramel flavors.<\/p>\n
Levulinic acid acts as a pH regulator for both food and cosmetics which means it can replace fossil-derived acidity regulators like acetic acid.\u00a0 Levulinic acid is an alternative to benzoic or sorbic acid in preservation systems and its antimicrobial properties are already used in perfumes and skin conditioning.<\/p>\n
It also demonstrates a range of property opportunities for short and middle chain length polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA).\u00a0 This could enable durable PHB3HV4HV products for film, fiber, injection molding and extrusion applications.\u00a0 Such PHBV products have advantages compared to PHB.\u00a0 These include improved fermentation yield, enhanced toughness and elongation properties.\u00a0 A wider processing window is also possible due to the lower melt temperature and crystallinity control enabled by levulinic acid.<\/p>\n
Until now, biobased platform chemicals such as levulinic acid have been far from cost-competitive to produce.\u00a0 This has limited most uses to high-end applications.\u00a0 GFBiochemicals has changed all this with its commercial-scale plant in Caserta, Italy.\u00a0 The breakthrough technology enables a fundamentally lower price range.<\/p>\n
GFBiochemicals produces levulinic acid without intermediate process steps using proprietary technology, making it significantly more affordable for industry players and consumers.\u00a0 A range of biomass can be used, including ligno-cellulosics.<\/p>\n
At a time when the world is moving from fossil-based to alternative feedstock, new applications are being researched at this very moment which will only increase the versatility of biobased chemicals.\u00a0 I\u2019m proud of the expert team which GFBiochemicals has brought together to investigate these opportunities.\u00a0 We will continue to look towards partnerships to develop the market for biobased solutions.<\/p>\n
Chemicals like levulinic acid can serve as incredibly versatile building blocks for chemicals, materials and fuels.\u00a0 Especially when they also successfully address many performance-related issues attributed to current products.\u00a0 However, it is vital that these promising platform chemicals are sustainably derived from biomass, whether directly or otherwise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As the world readies for COP 21 in Paris, this is more evident than ever before. Civil society, policymakers and industry are all demanding new solutions for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. These societal challenges we face need a low carbon solution. For instance, fuels and additives derived from local-sourced cellulosic waste can offset concerns about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[],"supplier":[9363,11236],"class_list":["post-30732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","supplier-gfbiochemicals-ltd","supplier-u-s-department-of-energy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30732\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30732"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=30732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}