{"id":62401,"date":"2019-04-17T07:29:24","date_gmt":"2019-04-17T05:29:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=62401"},"modified":"2019-04-12T14:18:00","modified_gmt":"2019-04-12T12:18:00","slug":"how-to-convert-wheat-straw-waste-into-green-chemicals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/how-to-convert-wheat-straw-waste-into-green-chemicals\/","title":{"rendered":"How to convert wheat straw waste into green chemicals"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u00a9 olrat, Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The development of new bio-refining technologies based on agricultural waste is seen as key to reducing Europe\u2019s dependency on fossil-based products. According to a White Paper<\/a> by the International Council on Clean Transportation, about 144 million tonnes of wheat residues accumulate each year in the EU. Supported by the EU-funded OPTISOCHEM project<\/a>, researchers have made significant progress in transforming this excess material into something more useful: bio-isobutene, or bio-IBN, a key precursor for numerous chemicals.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The project involves several processes such as the conversion of wheat straw into hydrolysate and its fermentation into isobutene. This material is then converted into oligomers and polymers. A press release by project coordinator Global Bioenergies states that \u201ccurrently underutilized residual wheat straw has been converted at demo scale into second generation renewable bio-isobutene, and will eventually be transformed into oligomers and polymers usable in lubricants, rubbers, cosmetics, solvents, plastics, or fuels applications.\u201d<\/p>\n

Planned activities<\/h3>\n

Quoted in the same press release, Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Boideau, EMEA Commercial General Manager at project partner INEOS Oligomers, says: \u201cTo date, we received several batches of bio-isobutene from Global Bioenergies for qualification purpose[s], and the quality is promising. During the next phase of the project, INEOS is ready to evaluate conversion of additional quantities of bio-isobutene into downstream products in order to assess the potential of this bio-based feedstock as a building block for end consumer applications.\u201d Frederic P\u00e2ques, COO of Global Bioenergies, adds: \u201cWe expect to produce several tons of bio-isobutene on this new non-conventional feedstock in the remaining periods of the project.\u201d<\/p>\n

Various benefits<\/h3>\n

The project website notes that the partners hope to make use of the \u201ctechnical, economic as well as environmental\/social sustainability performances\u201d for a commercial biorefinery. The ongoing OPTISOCHEM (OPTimized conversion of residual wheat straw to bio-ISObutene for bio based CHEMicals) project is funded by the Bio-Based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI JU), a public-private partnership between the EU and the Bio-based Industries Consortium. The project will run until May 2021.<\/p>\n

As summarised on the BBI JU project web page, OPTISOCHEM aims to achieve a rise in \u201cthe yield of targeted bio-based product(s)\u201d by over 20 % and lessen \u201cproduction costs of bio-based products by 10-20%, compared to current market situation.\u201d Another expected impact of the project involves \u201csavings, in terms of CO2<\/sub> emissions per kg product by more than 20% for bio-catalytic as compared to state-of-the-art production methods.\u201d The partners also plan to cut \u201cenergy consumption by more than 30% for bio-catalytic processes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overall, the BBI JU is expected to provide several environmental and socioeconomic benefits, as summarised on its website: \u201cThe new bio-based products resulting from the BBI JU will on average reduce CO2<\/sub> emissions by at least 50% compared to their fossil alternatives.\u201d It emphasises that these products will be \u201ccomparable and\/or superior to fossil-based products in terms of price, performance, availability and environmental benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The development of new bio-refining technologies based on agricultural waste is seen as key to reducing Europe\u2019s dependency on fossil-based products. According to a White Paper by the International Council on Clean Transportation, about 144 million tonnes of wheat residues accumulate each year in the EU. Supported by the EU-funded OPTISOCHEM project, researchers have made […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"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":[5838,5831,10408,14107],"supplier":[8031,5585,15658,1534,7768,18311,308],"class_list":["post-62401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-bioeconomy","tag-biorefinery","tag-greenchemistry","tag-isobutene","supplier-bbi-joint-undertaking","supplier-european-union","supplier-gemeinsames-unternehmen-fuer-biobasierte-industriezweige-gubbi","supplier-global-bioenergies","supplier-horizon-2020","supplier-icct-international-council-on-clean-transportation","supplier-ineos-group-limited"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62401","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\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62401\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62401"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=62401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}