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Advances in biochemical engineering/biotechnology
Feb 26, 2025;

Recycling Biowaste and Residuals into Chemical Products.

Thomas Bayer, Alexander May, Manfred Kircher
Author Information
  1. Thomas Bayer: Provadis School of International Management and Technology AG, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
  2. Alexander May: Provadis School of International Management and Technology AG, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
  3. Manfred Kircher: KADIB - Kircher Advice in Bioeconomy, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. kircher@kadib.de.
PMID: 40000484 DOI: 10.1007/10_2025_280

Abstract

Today, organic chemical products are predominantly produced based on fossil raw materials. The demand for climate-friendly products, legal requirements and the EU emissions trading scheme (EU-ETS) are forcing the chemical industry to focus on increased recycling and production based on CO and biomass in the future. To avoid competition with the food sector associated with the industrial use of biomass, organic waste, residual materials and CO are to be tapped as carbon sources. This chapter describes the volume potential of these alternative raw materials in the EU and technologies for their utilisation in basic, speciality and fine chemical products for various applications and markets. The question of the availability of sustainable carbon sources arises for the large-volume products of basic chemistry. A detailed techno-economic analysis (TEA) to produce methanol based on CO is therefore presented as an example. Finally, the requirements for achieving the raw material transition by 2050 are discussed.

Keywords

Bio-residuals Biowaste Bulk chemicals CO2 Fine chemicals Methanol Specialty chemicals Technical and economical assessment

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