Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
1 Traditional and Emerging Feedstocks
for Food and Industrial Bioproduct
Manufacturing
Nurhan Turgut Dunford
1.1 INTRODUCTION
Many industrial products, such as dyes, inks, paints and plastics, were made from biomass
generated by trees, vegetables or other crops during the early 1900s. By 1970, petroleum-
based products had largely replaced bio-based products. The utilization of plant-based
materials decreased from about 35% to less than 16% between 1925 and 1989 (Forward,
1994). Waning interest in bio-based products was due to the relative ease and lower cost of
manufacturing similar products from petrochemicals.
The petrochemical industry has been very successful in developing new products (more
than 100 000 commercial products) (Metzger and Eissen, 2004). About 2.6 million barrels
per day of petroleum equivalent are used for production of chemicals and industrial building
blocks. More than 95% of the world's petrochemical production is derived from oil or
natural gas (Weissermel and Arpe, 1997). Excessive reliance on non-renewable energy and
resources is the major problem facing petrochemical industry today. In 2001 it was projected
that the global oil reserves would last for about 40 years (Metzger and Eissen, 2004). Oil
production is expected to reach its maximum in this decade, at the latest by 2015-2020, and
then slowly decrease. According to Gavrilescua and Chisti, the issues that make the
petrochemical industry unsustainable in the long run are: (1) utilization of manufacturing
techniques that are not environmentally benign or safe, (2) production of toxic by-products
and waste, (3) products are not readily recyclable and biodegradable after their useful life,
and (4) social benefits of the production are not broadly accessible due to excessive regional
concentration of production (Gavrilescua and Chisti, 2005).
Nearly one billion of the current world population (the total is about six billion) live in
the industrialized countries. The world population is expected to reach to about nine billion
by 2050. It is anticipated that the population growth will mainly soar in the developing
countries (Metzger and Eissen, 2004). As the population and the standard of living increase,
demand for food and other goods will substantially grow, consequently exerting tremendous
pressure on resources. Today it is true that “hunger is a problem of poverty rather than
absolute food scarcity” (Koning
et al
., 2008). Yet, the global demand for food production
will more than double by 2050, competing for resources needed to grow biomass for other
purposes, including biofuels and bio-based non-food industrial products (Koning
et al
.,
2008). A combination of further increases in crop yields (about 2% per year) and doubling
