Lignocelluloses are available in plentiful and is a renewable resource made up of ca. 40-50% cellulose, 25-30% hemicellulose and 20-25% lignin. Technologies are in place to separate cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin from each other and hence raw material, hemicellulose is readily available.
Hemicellulose a carbohydrate is abundantly and cheaply available across the globe and is a main factor that many countries will be independent about their chemical needs. Hemicellulose, which is basically derived from the non-edible source, will have advantage over edible sources for their conversion into chemicals as it is independent of food-crisis and geo-political factors.
Conversion of fossil feedstock (crude oil, natural gas, coal etc.) into chemicals and energy produces significant amount of carbon dioxide which causes global warming. The recent exponential price rise of crude oil on the back-drop of mismatch in increasing demand and limited supply has pushed the world economy to a jinx. Moreover, geo-political factors and finite reserves available in only selective areas on the earth are also held responsible for the current situation. To maintain the prices of fuels and to keep carbon dioxide at constant levels, efforts are being made in the field of production of biomass based fuels (bio-ethanol and bio-diesel) and this in turn has made the whole situation more complex. As these fuels are mostly sought from the increasing uses of edible sources such as starch (corn, rice etc.) and vegetable oils (seed oils), it has attracted a lot of criticism across the globe on the note of increasing food prices. Thus, ways to overcome limitations arising from the use of fossil feedstock and edible sources for the synthesis of chemicals are being sought by way of the utilization of non-edible biomass resource under the bio-refinery title. Biomass during its growth captures light energy, water and carbon dioxide to form carbohydrates in a photosynthesis process. The integral part of fixing of CO2 during carbohydrate synthesis makes the utilization of plant derived biomass a totally “carbon neutral” process. The net annual yield of photosynthesis is around 1.3 trillion tons, thus making it the largest renewable resource available and a part of this renewable, non-edible resources are lignocellulosic materials such as wood and agricultural wastes.
