What is "Waste to Chemicals"?
Waste to Chemicals refers to transforming wastes and residues to energy, fuels and other useful, valuable materials.
How It Relates to Green Chemistry:
Finite fossil fuels are diminishing and becoming more economically and environmentally detrimental to extract. As the world鈥檚 population and resource consumption grows, waste generation has also increased dramatically. The idea of a 鈥渃ircular economy鈥� has emerged, where products are made, used and re-used, rather than being discarded into a landfill. However, most of the systems needed to achieve circularity are not yet in place 鈥� or even designed.
Chemists and engineers must develop economically viable and sustainable resource solutions with responsible materials management, human health and environmental concerns in mind. The transformation of wastes (biomass, food, industrial, etc.) into fuels and other high-value chemicals is becoming a critical field of green chemistry.
Focus Principles
- Prevention 鈥� Creating a waste stream that is also a valuable feedstock prevents waste from entering the environment.
- Maximize Resource Efficiency听- Depletion of finite resources can be minimized by using waste as a feedstock for new chemicals.
- Design Systems Holistically and Using Life Cycle Thinking听鈥� Designing chemicals and infrastructure so that waste can be used as a valuable chemical feedstock facilitates a truly circular material lifecycle .
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Examples of Waste to Chemicals
Levulinc Acid from Cellulose
Biofine (now DPS Biometrics, Inc.) developed a process to convert the waste cellulose in paper mill sludge, municipal solid waste, unrecyclable waste paper, waste wood, and agricultural residues into levulinic acid (LA). LA can be used as a building block for chemicals in many useful materials, including pharmaceuticals, food additives and plastics. LA made from waste cellulose reduces the use of fossil fuels and reduces the overall cost of LA from $4鈥�6 per pound to as little as $0.32 per pound. In 2015, GF Biochemical opened a 10,000MT capacity plant to produce LA from biomass on an industrial scale. ()
Biomass to Acids, Ketones and Alcohols
Professor Mark Holtzapple developed a family of technologies to convert waste biomass, such as sewage sludge and agricultural wastes, into animal feed products, industrial chemicals or fuels. Holtzapple hydrolyzed waste by treating it with lime, and the products could then be used as ruminant animal feeds, bio-adhesives or fed into large anaerobic germinators with rumen microorganisms for conversion to acids, ketones, or alcohols ()
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ACS GCI Resources on Waste to Chemicals
- (Nexus, 2017)
- (Nexus, 2014)
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Selected Literature
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(2013)
This paper explores the production of high-value products from 2nd generation food waste valorization strategies. New practices are compared to conventional food waste processing (ex. incineration), while issues linked to the use of food waste as a sustainable raw material are also highlighted.
(2013)
A brief overview of the development and reach of sustainable food waste valorization practices
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(2007)
In this document, the U.S. Department of Energy assesses lignin鈥檚 potential and timeframe as a renewable raw material source for fuel, syn-gas, biobased macromolecules, aromatics and miscellaneous monomers.
(2012)
This book provides a detailed overview of waste-to-energy and implementation approaches. The second half of the book includes several case study discussions from across the world, commenting both on research and applications.
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