Technique set to produce renewable chemicals
4 Jul 2013
Researchers from Liverpool University have been awarded funding to develop renewable chemicals produced from biomass.
The chemicals are being designed to reduce industry reliance on fossil fuels within the materials, plastics and pharmaceuticals sectors.
The project, in collaboration with the University of York, will attempt to develop biomass chemicals from waste sugars, fats, oils and carbohydrates.
The future success of bio-based products will depend on increasing collaboration between centres of excellence
The method involves integrating bio-refining process with improved separation technologies in an effort to activate compounds derived from biomass.
The development of renewable chemicals has encountered issues in past efforts, as scaling-up the process for industry use has proven uncompetitive against other technologies.
Dr Jose Lopez-Sanchez, project leader, commented: “The use of renewables in the production of bioenergy and chemicals also represents one of the necessary steps required to reduce CO2 emissions in the near future and therefore reduce the detrimental impact of human activity in our environment.”
The technique utilises highly skilled robotic instrumentation to aid the transformation of the bio-derived products and progress the discovery of necessary catalysts.
Professor James Clark, director of the Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence at York, noted, “The future success of bio-based products will depend on increasing collaboration between centres of excellence providing complementary skills.”
