4 Introduction to Renewable Biomaterials
Table 1.3Feedstock mix (%) in German
chemical industries (2011) (Benzing, 2013).
Naphtha
Natural
gas Coal
Bio-based
feedstock
71 14 2 13
mineral oil, natural gas, and coal will serve more than three-fourths of total world energy
supply (US Energy Information Administration, 2013). The mix of fossil feedstock
differs among global regions dependent on regional resources and trade routes.
1.2.2.2 Chemicals
The cheap and seemingly unlimited availability of fossil resources not only triggered
an energy-hungry industrialization but also the innovation leap into today’s chemical
industry. High carbon content in combination with easy logistics through pipelines
and tankers made especially oil and gas an ideal industrial feedstock. Seven percent
of the global oil and about 2% of world natural gas consumption go into chemicals
demonstrating that fossil oil still dominates the global chemical industry (70–80% of
chemicals are derived from oil, 8–10% from gas, 10–13% from biomass, and only 1–2%
from coal; compare Table 1.3)
Since ancient times chemicals and biochemicals had been produced from natural
reservoirs or from biological resources, respectively. For example, sodium carbonate
was imported by Europe from soda lakes in Egypt and Turkey or extracted from water
plants. The alkaline solution of soda ash (sodium carbonate) is in fact named after Arabic
“al kalja” for the ashes of water plants. In 1771, an alternative method changed the world
when Nicolas Leblanc (1742–1806) in France invented the chemical synthesis of sodium
carbonate by using coal as the carbon source. This real innovation is today acknowledged
as the starting point of chemical industries.
Structural Materials Since the mid-nineteenth century natural product chemistry tried
to use biomaterials as a feedstock to organic chemicals. For example, cellulose, the
most abundant plant polysaccharide, has been investigated intensively. The fact that
in 1846 three German chemists simultaneously but independently invented a method
to produce nitrocellulose from cellulose demonstrates how the time was right for such
an innovation. It marked the change from biomaterials to bio-based materials. Though
highly inflammable, nitrocellulose entered the market with great success because
it was able to replace expensive materials such as whale baleens especially used in
ladies costumes as well as silk. Later in 1910 viscose was developed from cellulose in
Germany as a fiber material that is still in use. Another example of the efforts to gain
independence from natural starting materials by developing synthetic materials is the
invention of galalith plastic from casein in 1897 again by German chemists. Obviously,
there was a market waiting for more materials from modified biological sources, and
there were scientists exploring chemistry.
Dyes Whereas the examples mentioned so far represent more structural materials for
fibers and tissues, instruments, and housing, the next group demonstrates the boosting
power of added-value chemicals. Color design mostly does not directly determine
