Chemicals from biomass - The U.S. prospects for the turn of the century

Historically, chemicals from biomass have been and are expected to be economical in three major areas: byproducts, specialty items and polymers. Assessments of producing major chemicals from biomass in a processing plant based on the available conversion techniques indicate that they are not economically attractive, with the possible exception of conversion to ammonia and ethanol. The deterrents are the heavy capital investments, dependability of raw material supply and transportation costs for large plants, lack of operation experience, inadaptability of market variations, and competition from petroleum and coal. More importantly, it is also shown that even if chemicals from biomass were economical today, the resultant savings in petroleum would be far less than those achieved through other options available for the utilization of biomass as fuel and structural material. Thus, it is concluded that near-term research and development must be toward improved conversion processes, recovery of valuable products from waste streams at existing plants, more efficient use of biomass of energy and more efficient production of superior material products.