VI
Foreword
is begging to be invented and you could
be in the forefront of that exciting development.
One of the great things about this book
is that it is easy to read with its quirky
titles, interesting anecdotes and liberal
sprinkling of lovely colour pictures. You
can dip in and out of it to find nuggets of
information, what is been done already
and what still needs to be done or you
could read it as a bedtime story. Just to
make sure you have not fallen asleep
whilst reading there are “Quickie’s” at
the end of each chapter; questions which
check what you have learnt and that you
have retained it. Do not worry, though,
the answers are collected at the end of
the book, but you should really try to get
them without looking them up - just use
them to check you were right!
The book starts like Under Milk Wood
or the song Do Ray Me at the beginning
with an excellent overview of the field
and a critical appraisal of the advantages
and disadvantages of the feedstocks that
are available, before moving on to individual feedstocks starting with fats and
oils because they are currently the most
exploited. The discussion moves to glycerol, a coproduct when making many
derivatives from natural oils and sugar
before things get much more complicated
with cellulose, the world’s most abundant
organic polymer, starch and other carbohydrates. It then moves on to the toughest
nut of all, lignin. Masses of lignin is available from trees but it is hardly exploited
because its structure is complex; it is
difficult to dissolve or break down and
really hard to get single products form
it. It can be done, for example, in a complex process for making vanillin, a flavouring compound that can also be used
as a starting material for pharmaceutical
production. However, this work is in its
infancy. There is so much more to do. It is
difficult but the rewards will be extremely
high. Things get a bit easier with the naturally occurring hydrocarbons, terpenes
and their polymers, where significant
chemical advances have already been
made. Then come amino acids and their
condensation to form the elements of life,
polypeptides and proteins followed by
compounds which can be extracted from
nature for use as dyes, flavours, vitamins,
drugs or polymers, many of which are
biodegradable.
Every chapter is peppered with some history, finds some interesting character,
comprehensively explores some really
exciting chemistry, shows applications
and potential uses and explains how all of
this can be done. In the end, the authors
take a comprehensive look at the possibility of integrating many processes in a
biorefinery. Here, agriculture, chemistry
and chemical engineering are brought
together to make everything else in the
book a reality. One or more bio-feeds
are transformed into a range of different
useful chemicals and products just as in
an oil refinery using oil as the feedstock.
Biorefineries are usually more complex
than oil refineries but they must become
commonplace exploiting different feedstocks according to local availability. They
must be run in a clean environmentally
friendly way so it is a bit sad that the picture of the plant producing bio-ethanol as
a platform chemical or fuel from sugar in
Brazil appears to show dense grey smoke
emanating from the chimneys. The pilot
plant for biomass to liquid products in
Karlsruhe looks much more environmentally friendly!
When you finish reading this book, you
will be full of facts, ideas and enthusiasms
- and you will be exhausted but I hope
that you will be inspired to get involved,
solve the major problems and really make
a difference to our world by giving it a circular, sustainable and clean future.
As a bonus, you will also have read a prize
winning text book because the original German version of The Chemistry of
Renewables won the prize from the German Chemical Industry Association for
the best German chemistry textbook of
Foreword
is begging to be invented and you could
be in the forefront of that exciting development.
One of the great things about this book
is that it is easy to read with its quirky
titles, interesting anecdotes and liberal
sprinkling of lovely colour pictures. You
can dip in and out of it to find nuggets of
information, what is been done already
and what still needs to be done or you
could read it as a bedtime story. Just to
make sure you have not fallen asleep
whilst reading there are “Quickie’s” at
the end of each chapter; questions which
check what you have learnt and that you
have retained it. Do not worry, though,
the answers are collected at the end of
the book, but you should really try to get
them without looking them up - just use
them to check you were right!
The book starts like Under Milk Wood
or the song Do Ray Me at the beginning
with an excellent overview of the field
and a critical appraisal of the advantages
and disadvantages of the feedstocks that
are available, before moving on to individual feedstocks starting with fats and
oils because they are currently the most
exploited. The discussion moves to glycerol, a coproduct when making many
derivatives from natural oils and sugar
before things get much more complicated
with cellulose, the world’s most abundant
organic polymer, starch and other carbohydrates. It then moves on to the toughest
nut of all, lignin. Masses of lignin is available from trees but it is hardly exploited
because its structure is complex; it is
difficult to dissolve or break down and
really hard to get single products form
it. It can be done, for example, in a complex process for making vanillin, a flavouring compound that can also be used
as a starting material for pharmaceutical
production. However, this work is in its
infancy. There is so much more to do. It is
difficult but the rewards will be extremely
high. Things get a bit easier with the naturally occurring hydrocarbons, terpenes
and their polymers, where significant
chemical advances have already been
made. Then come amino acids and their
condensation to form the elements of life,
polypeptides and proteins followed by
compounds which can be extracted from
nature for use as dyes, flavours, vitamins,
drugs or polymers, many of which are
biodegradable.
Every chapter is peppered with some history, finds some interesting character,
comprehensively explores some really
exciting chemistry, shows applications
and potential uses and explains how all of
this can be done. In the end, the authors
take a comprehensive look at the possibility of integrating many processes in a
biorefinery. Here, agriculture, chemistry
and chemical engineering are brought
together to make everything else in the
book a reality. One or more bio-feeds
are transformed into a range of different
useful chemicals and products just as in
an oil refinery using oil as the feedstock.
Biorefineries are usually more complex
than oil refineries but they must become
commonplace exploiting different feedstocks according to local availability. They
must be run in a clean environmentally
friendly way so it is a bit sad that the picture of the plant producing bio-ethanol as
a platform chemical or fuel from sugar in
Brazil appears to show dense grey smoke
emanating from the chimneys. The pilot
plant for biomass to liquid products in
Karlsruhe looks much more environmentally friendly!
When you finish reading this book, you
will be full of facts, ideas and enthusiasms
- and you will be exhausted but I hope
that you will be inspired to get involved,
solve the major problems and really make
a difference to our world by giving it a circular, sustainable and clean future.
As a bonus, you will also have read a prize
winning text book because the original German version of The Chemistry of
Renewables won the prize from the German Chemical Industry Association for
the best German chemistry textbook of