(160c) Generating Novel Compounds through Bioprivileged Molecules

An important opportunity for biomass utilization is the generation of novel chemicals that cannot be readily accessed from traditional carbon sources. However, much of the effort in converting biomass to biobased chemicals has been driven by the retrosynthesis of target molecules, which limits the potential for identifying new chemicals. An alternative approach is the synthesis of “bioprivileged molecules” that are biology-derived chemical species that can be readily converted to a diversity of chemical products including known molecules and novel species, which can be used for next generation materials, specialty chemicals, nutraceuticals, antimicrobials, insecticides, herbicides, consumer goods, etc. This dual potentiality of a bioprivileged molecule is vital since innovative biobased chemicals represent a powerful driver for the development of biobased chemicals beyond just replacing fossil carbon with renewable carbon. Several examples of bioprivileged molecules being developed by the NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals (CBiRC) will be discussed.