Feedstocks and Processes for Sustainable Manufacturing of Chemicals and Materials

Chemical manufacturing is critical for achieving sustainable development and a high quality of life for the global population. It underpins 95% of all manufactured goods and contributes US $5.7 trillion and 150 million jobs to the global economy. However, the chemical industry is also the world’s largest industrial energy consumer, third largest producer of direct CO2 emissions, and has inadvertently facilitated the release of toxic and persistent chemicals into the Earth’s ecosystem. Sustainable manufacturing of chemical building blocks from renewable (waste) carbon feedstocks, notably biomass, could mitigate climate change and environmental pollution through a new circular economy. Transitioning to carbon-neutral feedstocks while relying on existing manufacturing processes will fail to address waste and toxicity issues and disproportionate impacts on vulnerable communities. Achieving an industry transition of the requisite magnitude necessitates a rethink of the centralized and capital-intensive technologies employed in today’s chemical manufacturing. This GRC will unite researchers and stakeholders from diverse sectors to overcome fundamental challenges in feedstock selection, and the design and scale-up of new (notably catalytic) routes to bioderived molecules and materials.

This GRC invites international experts and early career researchers in the following areas to foster scientific breakthroughs and innovative technologies for sustainable chemical manufacturing from biomass: i) chemical and/or biological strategies to deconstruct or fractionate lignocellulose and algae into individual biomass components; ii) chemical, biological or hybrid catalysts for atom- and energy-efficient biomass conversion to chemicals or fuels; iii) lignin-first approaches to whole biomass conversion to aromatic and aliphatic building blocks; iv) selective carbohydrate conversion to platform chemicals; v) manufacturing strategies to improve process efficiency and scale-up; vi) technoeconomic analysis and life cycle assessment of biomass conversion technologies; vii) synthesis of bioderived polymers with tunable properties.