BIOBASED CHEMICALS
Food waste : A promising raw material for biochemicals
Dr Vinod Kumar of Cranfield University looks at how food waste can become part of the circular model
It is estimated that unsustainable fossil-based sources are still used for more than 90 % of global chemical production for use in the cosmetics , food , pharmaceutical , polymers and textile industries .
Biorefineries are the obvious alternative , a sustainable way forward for the low or zero carbon manufacture of chemicals . Biomass , a theoretically inexhaustible resource , obtained through the assimilation of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into organic materials , represents an important alternative sustainable feedstock for the continuous production of chemical building blocks .
With an exponentially growing human population , however , the use of edible materials for biorefineries needs to be avoided . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) has warned that the increasing trend for using land to grow bioenergy crops is leading to deforestation , land degradation , increased use of chemicals , water pollution , and serious threats to wildlife and biodiversity .
Palm oil , a controversial crop with its significant contribution to carbon emissions , is increasingly being grown as a biofuel . The aviation industry , meanwhile , has a convenient solution to carbon emissions through the use
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