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Feedstock supply and security was another major concern highlighted at EFIB. Worries about the demands on crop productivity, particularly with a world population expected to hit 9bn people by 2050, have put a big questionmark on the availability of biomass – and land – needed in order to progress to a fully biobased economy. This is despite recent moves towards commercialising second generation biorefineries capable of producing chemicals and fuels from plant waste that don’t compete with food crops. Not only do researchers need to engage better with farmers and encourage them to grow the right crops, but farmers also need to be to view themselves as businesspeople, Tanda said. And along with plant matter, as Antoine Hubert at French biotech firm Ynsect pointed out, for example, there are around 5m insects on the planet of which only 1m are currently known. Insects are a rich source of proteins, Hubert commented, and are much more efficient at converting plant matter to protein than cows – emitting far less CO2
in the process.
The cuticle of insects is composed of chitin, he explained, a highly functionalised polymer similar to cellulose in plants, making it a potentially versatile building block for the production of a range of more valuable chemicals and materials. The firm currently has in operation a pilot scale plant producing chemicals from insects, which usefully requires very little water, so energy creating big savings, compared with traditional biorefineries, Hubert noted. It aims to go onstream with the world’s first industrial bioreactor for insects, or Entoraffinerie, by 2017. World demand for the related polysaccharide chitosan, derived from the
shells of shrimps and other crustaceans, currently stands at around 8000t/year, he added by way of comparison. And while insects may not be on the menu for everyone yet, Hubert noted that the use of insect protein for pet food and fish feed was approved in the EU in June 2013. He is hopeful that it could be given the green light for use in poultry and pig feed in the next five years. Achieving feedstock security, meanwhile, will also depend on legislation. In September 2013, MEPs controversially voted to limit the share of land-based biofuels to 6% of the EU target for renewable transport, so that next generation biofuels will be required to achieve the target of 10% of transport energy from renewable sources by 2020 (C&I, 2013, 10, 8). Elsewhere at EFIB, there were also calls for similar targets to promote the development of bioplastics, particularly since, as van Gansberghe pointed out, replacing all of the world’s traditional petchems-derived plastics with bioplastics would take just 2% of the available arable land, compared with the 100% of arable land that would be needed replace all fuels with first generation biofuels. The high energy costs of white biotechnology products and processes, which typically involve evaporating large amounts of water, often make the US a more favourable location for large scale plants, van Gansberghe said. However, large amounts of beet sugar – with productivities approaching 20t/ha – and high levels of interest in biobased products among European consumers mean that the region ‘could be a credible location’ for a future commercial-scale biorenewable PLA plant, he commented.
‘Game changing’ display technology
Government mandates for biofuels are constantly being revised downwards, according to Martin Bellof, business development manager at Autodisplay Biotech in Germany. Just 20,069 gallons of cellulosic ethanol was produced in the US in 2012 – far below the original target of 500m gallons proposed in 2005 (though this figure was itself later revised downwards). The main sticking point is the cost of the
cellulase enzyme needed to carry out this bioconversion reaction to produce ethanol from sugars, Bellof said. Cellulases for industrial use are currently produced by fungi, but this process is very expensive, partly because the enzymes have to be concentrated by ultrafiltration before they can be transported ready for use on the plant. Instead, researchers at Autodisplay Biotech
are developing a method of anchoring cellulase and other enzymes on the surface of bacteria, which not only lowers enzyme costs, but may also be easily integrated into existing biorefineries. The resulting enzyme systems, immobilised on gram negative bacteria such as Pseudomonas putida, have a better inhibitor profile – and higher overall process efficiencies, Bellof said. Importantly, the technology should also open up the possibility of creating cellulase blends for different feedstocks directly at biorefineries, he pointed out. It also enables the recovery of the enzymes from such bioconversion processes, which ‘could be a game changer for the biofuels and biobased chemicals industries,’ he said.
Chemistry&Industry • November 2013 17
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