Biomass to Chemicals

Agriculture Waste
Economic part of agricultural activity is the yield and the less
important part of it is used to be called agriculture waste

Agricultural waste in developing countries is about 35 percent of

agricultural crop products annually and could be a potential
source for 25 percent global energy requirements (Bayat, 2003)

India produces around 210 million tonnes of food grains and

almost 130 million tonnes of fruits and vegetables. Wastage in
India, from the farm to fork, is estimated to be very high in all
types of food.

Hence value additions to the wastes and by-products are very

good option to enhance the contribution of the sector in Indian
economy

Agriculture waste based lignocellulose is cheapest and most

abundant renewable resource and sustainable solution for raw
material source for energy, chemical
Biomass and Its sources
 Environmental Relevance

Leaking and improper storage of agricultural waste can also

pose a serious threat to the environment
In addition, farming activities can give rise to emissions of
ammonia and methane which can cause acidification and
contribute to greenhouse gases emissions
There are a number of potential environmental impacts
associated with agricultural waste, if it is not properly managed
 Biomass and Its Utilization

Agro waste based biomass resources : Rice husk, Rice straw, wheat
straw, Maize Straw, Sugar cane waste, animal waste and many more

Agriculture waste based biomass contain mainly non-edible

lignocellulose (cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin biomass) component

Biosynthesis of agriculture based bioproducts such as biofuels and

biochemical

Waste based economy will reduce costs through improved

production efficiencies

Cleaner agriculture bio products and bioprocesses for the production

of material wealth
 Biomass to Energy
The biomass can be:

Burned

Transformed into a fuel gas through partial combustion

Into biogas through fermentation

Into bio alcohol through biochemical processes

Into biodiesel

Into a bio-oil or into a syngas from which chemicals and fuels can be
synthesized

Bio ethanol production from either sugarcane bagasse or corn stalk

 Biomass to Energy
Biomass is the most common form of carbonaceous materials, widely
used in the main research and development for energy and valuable
chemicals production, involves following activities:

Biomass combustion

Thermal gasification

Pyrolysis

Biotechnology for fermentation processes

Anaerobic digestion of agricultural wastes

Straw utilization

Environmental systems
Biomass Conversion
Agriculture Waste Biomass Conversion
Biological processes for
the conversion of wastes to
fuels include ethanol
fermentation by yeast or
bacteria, and methane
production by microbial
culture in anaerobic
conditions, biocatalytic
methods for the conversion
of starch, corn co products,
beet sugar, or cane sugar
bagasse to value-added
oligosaccharides and
biochemical conversion of
lignocelluloses substrates
to cellulose, liquid glucose,
and value added chemicals
 Agriculture Waste Biomass Conversion

Possible routes to obtain chemicals from sugar cane bagasse

(Nossin et al., 2002)
 Process of Biomass Conversion

Current technologies involve following four major routes for nonedible

lignocellulose conversion to valuable chemicals (Simonetti and
Dumesic, 2008)
 Gasification

The gasication process involves:

Requires high temperatures more than 1100 K

Necessary for the endothermic formation of synthesis gas (Lange,

2007) a valuable mixture of CO and H2

Co-feeding an oxidizing agent such as oxygen, air, stream in the

gasier which causes partial combustion of the biomass

Can be used to process all the three component of lignocellulosic

biomass

The synthesis gas obtained can be used to produce methanol

 Pyrolysis/liquefaction

Pyrolysis and liquefaction involve:

The thermal decomposition of agriculture waste biomass under an inert

atmosphere at lower temperatures 573K973 K

Convert biomass to a dark organic liquid, commonly known as bio-oil

Consists of a complex mixture of more than 300 highly oxygenated compounds,

polymeric carbohydrates, lignin fragments and a water content of typically 25 wt%

Bio-oils are good sources of chemicals

High oxygen content of the molecules present in bio-oils confers this liquid with
low energy content

Requires further deoxygenation, which typically involves consumption of an

external supply of H2

Can be used as a transportation fuels

 Hydrolysis

Acid and enzymatic hydrolysis is effective for separating the

carbohydrate and lignin fractions of lignocellulosic feeds at lower
temperatures

The complex structure of lignocellulose, with its highly crystalline,

lowsurface area cellulose protected by lignin, confers this material
with a high degree of recalcitrance, which makes its depolymerization
into the corresponding monomer sugars a difcult task

Effective pretreatment step must be employed to break the lignin

protection so that the acids or enzymes can more easily access and
hydrolyze the cellulose and hemicellulose fractions of the biomass

The lignin network is modied in aqueous solutions at mild

temperatures, which allows the hydrolysis of hemicellulose to occur
under the same conditions in the presence of acids

Pretreatment methodologies involving physical, chemical and

biological treatments have been developed to depolymerize
lignocellulosic materials
 Bioconversion

Biological processes for the conversion of agriculture wastes to

fuels include ethanol fermentation

By help of Microorganism like yeast or bacteria

Methane production by microbial consortia under anaerobic

conditions

Referred to as the enzyme-mediated conversion of organic

substrates, such as cellulose, to other more valuable substances,
such as protein

Bacterial decomposition of organic waste to produce ethanol,

methanol
 Technology based classification of biofuels and biochemicals

Biomass based fuels and chemical categorized in three main category (Frost,
2005)

First generation biofuels and bio based chemicals

Integrated bio refinery technology
Custom designed biofuels
Chemicals Produced from Agro-waste : Few example

Chemicals Agriculture Applications References

waste resourse
Ferulic acid Wheat bran Antioxidant,antimicrobial, anti- Sarangi and
inflammatory, antithrombosis, Sahoo, 2010
anti-cancer and antibiotic

Vanillin Wheat straw, Rice straw, Flavor for food, perfume, Herrmann et al.,
Rice bran oil, Sugar beet drink and pharmaceuticals 2000
pulp, Wheat bran industries Zheng et al.,
2007
Apiwatanapiwat
and
Vaithanomsat,
2009
Thibault et al.,
1998

Acrylic acid Sugar cane baggase Used in manufacture of various Lunelli et al., 2007
plastic coatings,adhesives
elastomers ,floor polishes, and
paints
Lignin Rye straw For synthesis of Gallic acid, Sun and Cheng ,
Protocatechuic acid, 2002
p-Hydroxybenzoic acid,
p-Hydroxybenzaldehyde,
Vanillic acid, Syringic acid,
Vanillin, Syringaldehyde
 Challanges
conversion of agriculture waste biomass and biomass-derived
compounds into fuels and chemicals addresses many of the
current issues like sustainability and renewable resources

biological processes for the production of fuels and chemical

have been well established, but these processes must still be
integrated into a system capable of meeting basic requirements
for overall efficiency of converting solar energy into biofuels and
biochemicals. So a model system must at least in principle, be
capable of easy scale-up and not be limited by either engineering
or economic factors

To accelerate the partial replacement of fossil fuels,

technologies for the production of valuable chemicals and energy
from renewable biomass resources should be economically
competitive with petrochemical industry in terms of complexity of
processes employed to convert biomass to fuels and chemicals
 References
Bayat F (2003) Effective factors in agricultural losses, and ways to
combat it. Paper presented in the first conference in prevention methods
of natural resources, 19-21 Jan. Farhangestan Olom, Tehran. (In Farsi)

Frost J (2005) Redefining chemical manufacture replacing petroluem

with plant-derived feedstocks. Industrial Biotechnology 60:23-24

Lange JP (2007) Lignocellulose conversion: an introduction to chemistry,

process and economics. Biofuels Bioproducts Biorefining 1:3948

Nossin, P, Joosten J, Bruggink A (2002), Future feedstocks for

commodity advancement: An Overview. Bioresource Technology
16:2354-2366

Simonetti DA, Dumesic JA (2008) Catalytic strategies for changing the

energy content and achieving CC coupling in biomass-derived
oxygenated hydrocarbons. ChemSusChem 1:725733