Posted on 04/11/2008 12:16:53 AM PDT by neverdem
THE next time you stop at a gas station, wincing at the $3.50-a-gallon price and bemoaning society’s dependence on petroleum, take a step back and look inside your car.
Much of what you see in there comes from petroleum, too: the plastic dashboard, the foam in the seats. More than a tenth of the world’s oil is spent not on powering engines but as a feedstock for making chemicals that enrich many goods — from cosmetics to cleaners and fabric to automobile parts.
In recent years, this unsettling fact has motivated academic researchers and corporations to find ways to make bulk chemicals from renewable sources like corn and switchgrass. The effort to tap biomass for chemicals runs parallel to the higher-stakes research aimed at developing biofuels. Researchers hope that the two will come together soon to help replace petroleum refineries with biorefineries.
“As petroleum prices go up and climate change becomes a serious concern, the economy will have no choice but to switch to a chemical base derived from plant materials,” said Dr. Richard Gross, director of the Center for Biocatalysis and Bioprocessing of Macromolecules at Polytechnic University in Brooklyn.
The chemical industry is beginning to make that transition, at least for a few products. One success story is a method developed by DuPont, with Genencor, to ferment corn sugar into a substance called propanediol. Using propanediol as a starting point, DuPont has created a new polymer it calls Cerenol, which it substitutes for petroleum-sourced ingredients in products like auto paints.
Similarly, the biotech giant Cargill has begun manufacturing a polymer from vegetable oils that is used in polyurethane foams, which is found in beddings, furniture and car-seat headrests. Cargill says that using the polymer does more than save crude oil and reduce carbon emissions: the foam it produces has...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
This will just add more demand for non-food uses of food crops. I’m sure consumers will just love the higher food prices that will result.
Right whales wronged - The US proposes offshore drilling in endangered whales' summer haunt.
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
"The company is also commercializing a way to make nylon entirely from renewable feedstocks like starch and cellulose."
They identified bacteria and are getting a handle on the enzymes on this link. Click on the keyword cellulosicethanol for more threads. Subsidized, corn grain derived ethanol from fermentation and distillation is nuts.
Sometimes I think it isn't about conservation or alternative energy so much as the cut-your-nose-off-to-spite-your-face 'war' against "Eeevil BIG Oil".
If this can be done with a net energy gain which makes it economical and does not disrupt food supplies, great. Otherwise, back to the drawing board.
This would be great, provided we go back to oxen- and horse-drawn ploughs. :’) Thanks neverdem.
Actually non-food crops such as switchgrass are holding a lot of promise.
Don't throw out the baby with the bath water.
It's also about pandering for farm-state votes and payback for all those campaign contributions from the likes of Archer-Daniels Midland.
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