Globally, over 4.4 billion hectares of tree cover are harvested every year. Each hectare produces about 10 tons of biomass.
Wood, a nonedible biofeedstock, is an ideal raw material for producing fuels, chemicals, and materials. It is a rich source of carbon, which is a major feedstock for petrochemicals.
Today, most petrochemicals are produced from fossil fuels. In the future, industry can count on petrochemicals to become the largest driver of oil consumption, according to a recent study. Some scientists have suggested using renewable materials such as wood to produce certain petrochemicals, to help alleviate carbon emissions associated with fossil resources...
At KU Leuven, a university in Belgium, researchers are using lignocellulose derived from wood to create valuable products. Lignocellulose, a combination of carbohydrate and lignin biopolymers, is difficult to convert to chemicals. Lignins have a very low product yield when converted to petrochemicals...
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