• Fatty acids are components of vegetable oils

Fatty Acids that can be used to provide biodiesel

(renewable energy)
• Valuable chemical feedstock
Fatty Acids Chemical Transformation
 • Most of fatty acids are converted into the
corresponding alcohol for subsequent conversion
Fatty Acids Chemical into surfactants
Transformation • They are also transformed into the corresponding
metal salts for uses as ‘soaps’
 • The main commercial
Examples source of erucic acid is
a special form of rape
seed (High Erucic Acid
Rapeseed, HEAR)
• The high levels of
erucic acid found in
the specific type of
rape seed oil makes it
unsuitable for human
consumption (the acid
is indigestible)
• Applications of erucic
acid include
conversion into
erucamide, a ‘slip
agent’ used in making
polyethylene bags for
easy opening
 Ricinoleic acid
Examples • A major component of castor oil (> 87%), found in
ergot (fungi)
•metal salt of the acid (dry cleaning soap)
• converted into aminoundecanoic acid (Nylon 11)
• Nylon 11 has good chemical and shock resistance
properties thus use in automotive industry

Linoleic acid
Major constituent of linseed oil (ca 47%)
.The high degree of unsaturation in the
acid makes the oil an excellent drying
agent for use in paints, varnishes and inks
Renewable • Despite high production costs,

Polymers PLA polylactic acid (PLA) has been

produced as a high value material for
medical applications as dissolvable
stitches and controlled release devices
• PLA has very low toxicity and it is
biodegradable thus polymer of choice
for such medical applications
• PLA is made through polymerization
of lactic acid]
Renewable
polymer PLA

• A competing
depolymerization takes
place to produce cyclic
lactide
• The equilibrium is
important to control the
molecular weight of PLA
• Lactide can exist as D, L or meso forms
• A solution to this cyclic
lactide problem is to • Separation is important for medical use and other applications
isolate the lactide and • Only a small amount of useful lactide is obtained to be used in
polymerize it further polymerization
• Therefore, PLA can be costly to use as a commodity polymer
 Other Chemicals
from Natural
Resources

• Plants contain a whole variety of

other chemicals, including amino
acids, terpenes, flavonoids,
alkaloids
• When these natural materials are
combined with other products
obtained by chemical or biological
methods, the result is a huge wide
range of chemicals that can be
created from renewable resources
• Process is commercially viable
• Furfural is expensive, due to: (1) Dehydration and
cyclization steps are slow
(2) Only 50% of pentose is converted into furfural
• Uses: (1)extraction solvent (aromatic and alkene)
(2) intermediate in pharmaceutical and flavor
 Platform
molecules
• A platform chemical, one from
which a wide range of products
can be obtained
• 2-Aminovulinic acid (DALA) is
useful biodegradable herbicide
• Triggered by sunlight, DALA kills
dicotyledons, a useful weed killer,
for use with grass, corn, wheat
…etc
• Diphenolic acid has applications in
waterborne coatings
Platform molecules
Adipic Acid

• Currently made from

benzene
• route employs nitric acid in
the last oxidation step
• It involves production of
stoichiometric amounts of
nitrous oxide

• The shikimic acid pathway is a natural route for the synthesis of important aromatic amino
acids tryptophan, tyrosine and phenylalanine from glucose
• An important intermediate is 3-dehydroshikimic acid
• Catechol is an important specialty chemical used in flavor and fragrance industry in the
production of vanillin
• It may also be used in the production of L-Dopa used in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease
Platform molecules

• 1,3-Propanediol is solvent adhesive

• It is also used in the production of PTT, a polymer for production of
high quality fibres
• Dupont developed a commercial process for the production of 1,3-
propanediol using a genetically modified strain of E. coli in a
fermentation process based on simple sugars such as corn starch
• Biotechnology route produces 1,3-propanediol
• Although energy intensive process, the route uses 40% less energy
and produce 20% less greenhouse gases than conventional processes
 • New strategy, syngas economy, is based on
synthesis gas
Syngas as platform
• Syngas or synthesis gas is a fuel gas mixture of H2
molecules ,CO and some CO2
• The production of synthesis gas from natural gas
and coal is the basis of mass production of
methanol and ammonia
Biorefinery
• Use of different technologies such as supercritical
fluid extraction, gasification, fermentation and
chemical methods to give fuels, platform
chemicals and specialty chemicals
• First step is extraction using non-organic solvents
such as scCO2 . This is to extract easily extractable
materials such as terpenoids and waxes
• Also, gasification to produce syngas which is then
converted to hydrocarbons. Fischer Tropsch
technology
• A whole range of platform chemicals can be
obtained by fermentation of sugars in biomass
using yeast and bacteria