Perspectives on Chemicals from Renewable Resources - Sustainable Biotechnology: Sources of Renewable Energy - page 198

has been known for some time, production was not without its problems. However,
it was only with the advances in genetic engineering made by DuPont and Genencor
that resulted in the successful commercial production of 1,3-PDO from glucose
for use in the polymer poly(propylene terephthalate) (PPT), Sorona R [2]. The use
of glycerol (from renewable raw materials) for 1,3-PDO synthesis has also been
reported and a number of advanced studies in China have already been established
to pilot scale (5,000 l) production using Klebsiella pneumoniae [3].

2 Conversions of Lignin

Lignin can be found in a wide variety of trees and lignocellulosic plant materials
[4] and has the function of acting as a binder in the fibrous structure as well as pro-
viding anti-oxidative and anti-bacterial protection. Traditionally lignin is obtained
during the pulping process in the paper industry and used as a fuel source and more
recently as an additive in resins and cement. Cracking of lignin at elevated tem-
peratures results in a complex mixture of (poly)hydroxylates and alkylated phenolic
compounds [5-9]. Such aromatic compounds are of significance as potential precur-
sors to current aromatic products, such as benzene, phenol and styrene. However,
due to the complexity of the mixtures involved as well as the need to further “defunc-
tionalise” the aromatic ring, the challenge remains in the further conversion and
downstream processing of the fraction(s) obtained. Some attempts at simplifying
the complex mixtures by extreme defunctionalisation have been attempted. This has
been carried out under hydrodeoxygenation and hydrodealkylation conditions using
hydrogen gas and catalysts at elevated temperatures and pressures [10].

2.1 Amino Acid Conversions

One area that has received less attention for the synthesis of chemicals is the use
of amino acids. However lysine produced via fermentation from carbohydrates, has
been described in the literature as a potential building block for the production of
ε

-caprolactam, the monomer used in nylon-6 production. The L-lysine hydrochlo-
ride salt was heated resulting in cyclisation to the lactam

-caprolactam
which was subsequently deaminated with the use of hydroxylamine- o -sulfonic
acid [11]. Another potential

α -amino- ε

ε -caprolactam intermediate derived from lysine is

6-aminohex-2-enoic acid [12].

2.2 Other Biomass Conversions

The use of glycerol, a rest stream of biodiesel production, in industry has seen devel-
opments as companies invest to produce existing chemicals using this renewable
feedstock. For example Solvay has already brought online the industrial production