(318f) Completing the New Biofuel and Bio-Derived Chemicals and Materials Research Challenge

The need to convert biomass into fuels and chemicals was one of mankind’s earliest drivers for chemical and biochemical research. Indeed, at the turn of the century many industrial materials including inks, dyes, resins, paints, and synthetic fibers were made from bioresources. Yet, by the late 1960’s most of these biobased routes had been displaced by petroleum processes. The energy crisis of the 1970’s renewed interest and the need to develop new biorefining process technologies that were not depended upon petroleum reserves. Although these interests waned, the subsequent increased energy costs of the early 2000’s and environmental concerns re-ignited the need for green sustainable engineering process to convert biomass to biofuels, biopower and bio-derived chemicals and materials. The recent petroleum glut has again challenged biorefining technologies but future population growth, environmental concerns and increased global GDP will only add focus on renewable resources as many conventional nonrenewable resources will eventually reach their limits of environmentally viable extraction. Along with the advances in genetics, biotechnology, modelling, green process engineering and chemical catalysts one of the most important developments of Green Chemical Process Engineering is a renewed interest by students, researchers, entrepreneurs, NGOs, and societal expectations that modern society minimize its impact on the environment while still providing value-added products. To address these needs, our group and others have focused on integrating many of these differing technical fields to develop the next generation of biorefining engineering processes. This presentation will review how the natural variation in plant resources and/or genetic manipulation of the plant cell wall can yield tailored bioresources that can be efficiently converted from cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin to biofuels, bio-based chemicals and materials.