BIOPRODUCTS
What are bioproducts?
Biomass is any type of organic
material that is available on a renewable or recurring basis. It includes such things as crops and trees,
wood and wood wastes, aquatic plants and grasses. Bioproducts are products that
are made from biomass.
Until 200 years ago, most of the world’s demand for energy
and materials was met by using biomass.
For example, people burned wood and peat to cook and heat their homes,
and they used plant and animal matter to make tools, clothes and dyes.
This dependency on biomass often led to serious
environmental problems. Forest in many countries were decimated, plant and animal
biodiversity decreased, and smoke
from wood fires caused significant air pollution. Similar trends can be seen today in
developing countries that rely on biomass for energy and materials. The use of biomass by industry today must
include ways to avoid these problems and ensure that the industrial use of
biological materials is clean and sustainable.
Bioproducts today include everything from electrical power
and liquid fuels to products, such as shampoos, plastics, fabrics and
solvents. They are manufactured using
energy, chemicals or processes derived from biological materials (living
organisms and dead mater).
In large measure, they come from forestry, agricultural and
aquatic sources. They may or may not
involve the use of advanced technologies, such as genetic engineering. For the purposes of this Primer, Bioproducts
refer to household, commercial and industrial products, but not to the food,
feed and fibre we currently get from traditional uses of crops and trees.
The term "bioproducts” refers to a wide array of industrial
and commercial products that are characterized by a variety of properties,
compositions and processes, as well as different benefits and risks. Thus, the term "bioproducts” is one of
convenience; a careful consideration of bioproducts requires an examination of
the characteristics of particular bioproducts and the issues they raise on a
case-by-case basis.
Bioproducts are important to us because the biomass used in
their manufacture provides either a complement or an alternative to petroleum
and petrochemicals. Unlike fossil fuels, biomass is renewable and
has the capacity to quickly replenish itself using energy from the sun.
Pervasive Petroleum
Fossil fuels are ubiquitous in our everyday lives. For instance, according to the US Energy
Information Administration, they comprise more than 85 per cent of the world’s
primary energy supple. In Canada, oil
products are used to fuel cars, homes and factories. They also provide the raw material for many
different commercial and manufacturing industries. According to the Canadian Electricity
Association, fossil fuel-powered thermal generators supply about 28 per cent of
the electricity we use.
Petroleum also plays a key role as a critical ingredient
in many products. Early in the 20th
century, petroleum derived chemicals were used to make rayon – the first
human-made fibre. These chemicals are
now present in many fabrics, such as nylon, polyester and elastic. The plastics used in computers, medical
components, kitchen utensils and upholstery are also produced using chemicals
derived from petroleum and other fossil fuels.
In contrast, bioproducts use renewable biomass as a
complement or alternative to non-renewable petroleum-based feedstocks. The use of bioproducts could reduce our
dependence on fossil fuels as a source of raw materials in the manufacturing
and processing of many industrial products.
Why bioproducts now?
In the past 50 years, our understanding of the world and its
various life forms has changed in profound ways. Science and technology are moving at a rapid
pace and improving our knowledge of biology at the molecular level. Developments in the biological and life
sciences, as well as thermo-chemistry, have led to discoveries of new ways to
break down and use biological material.
Research is making possible new industrial products and processes that
use biomass instead of fossil fuels.
From these new methods and materials, biobased fuels,
bioplastics and biobased health products are emerging. These bioproducts could mark the beginning of
a shift to a biobased economy that eventually relies on renewable biological
materials to supply energy, chemicals and other products.
Associated with this shift is an increasing interest by
academia, industry and governments in exploring whether a biobased economy
could offer Canada
an opportunity to build on our existing resource strengths and industries,
while reducing pollution and enhancing economic development in rural areas.
Scientists and governments around the world are concerned
about gases generated from the use of fossil fuels. These gases (including billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide, or CO2)
prevent heat from leaving the Earth’s atmosphere and are causing global climate
change, the effects of which include rising temperatures and increasingly
severe weather. Scientists have come to
recognize the important role that plants play in absorbing and regulating the
concentration of global greenhouse
gases.
Industry and governments are examining whether a Canadian
biobased economy – one developed to minimize the adverse environmental and
social impacts of bioproducts – could help reduce our overall greenhouse gas emissions.
Thus, the use of bioproducts in Canada’s energy and transportation
industries (e.g., electricity generated using biomass fuels, or automobile
fuels made from plants) can be useful in the fight against climate change.
Biomass
Each
year, according to estimates by Stanford
University biologist
Peter Vitousek and his colleagues, approximately 224 billion tonnes of new
biomass (by dry weight) are generated by photosynthetic plants worldwide. Biomass currently provides about 15 per cent
of the energy used by people around the world and meets 35 per cent of the
energy needs of developing countries. In
Canada,
millions of tonnes of biomass are harvested every year as trees and crops from
forests and farms. While biomass
currently supplies just six per cent of Canada’s primary energy demand, the
BIOCAP Canada Foundation estimates that, if collecting and processing it were
feasible, the amount of unused biomass left on fields and forest cut sites
after harvest could supply 27 per cent of the energy we now get from fossil
fuels.
Where are bioproducts
found?
Although many consumers may not realize it, bioproducts are
present in most Canadian households.
For instance, wood is a traditional bioproduct that people
have been using in fires to heat homes and cook meals for thousand of
years. Today, many forest companies use
wood residues to generate heat and electrical power for their own operations.
Other, less traditional products of biological materials and
processes – now available or under development – include some types of
shingles, insulation, plastics, carpet, linoleum, fibreboard, specialty paper,
fabric, packaging, cleaners, solvents, paints, shampoo, cosmetics, soap,
lubricants, detergents and biofuels,
such as bioethanol and biodiesel.
Fuel ethanol made from the starch of corn is a bioproduct
that is becoming a common feature at gasoline pumps. More than 600 service stations across Canada
now offer fuel with bioethanol blended in as an additive. Technology to improve the acquisition of fuel
ethanol from corn and other cellulose-based
material is advancing rapidly. This
would allow the use of waste agricultural and forest biomass without detracting
from the use of the material as a food source.
Corn and other plants, such as wheat, that re rich in starch
may also become the source of wax used to polish cars, or they may become
ingredients in the glue used in home renovation projects.
Hemp, a plant long outlawed because of its close relatedness
to marijuana, is used as an ingredient in clothes, cosmetics, moisturizers and
lotions. It could also be blended into
the plastic of interior car door panels and dashboards to make them stronger
and more durable.
Bioproducts are already found in cosmetic kits and bathroom
cabinets. Products from oil seeds and
plant material are frequently used in the manufacture of soaps and
shampoos. Algae are used to produce
natural colours for use in cosmetics.
A chemical known as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is often used
as a floor covering. This
petroleum-based product could be replaced by linoleum produced from plant
fibres and resins. Artists paints that
once used petroleum-based azo pigments can now use dyes available in plants.
Bioproducts and the Carbon Cycle
One of the most important differences between bioproducts
industries and fossil fuel-based industries is the relationship each of these
has with the carbon cycle and, in particular, the trapping of energy from the
sun through photosynthesis.
The carbon cycle refers to the flow of carbon – a common chemical
element crucial to the chemistry of life – from an inorganic state to an
organic state (i.e., biomass) and back again.
Using energy-rich biomass to "close” the carbon cycle.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the inorganic form of carbon that is incorporated into living organisms through photosynthesis, a process that stores energy from the sun in carbon-based molecules within the biomass of vegetation and other organisms. Our bodies get carbon and the energy it stores by eating plants and the animals that eat plants.
Today, most societies get the energy and chemicals they need from fossil fuels – oil, coal and natural gas. These come from ancient plant material and other biomass that has been sequestered underground and away from the active carbon cycle for many millions of years.
When we use fossil fuels, we open the active carbon cycle to an additional source of carbon (from CO2 emissions), throwing the natural cycle off-balance. The resulting increase in the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has been linked to climate change.
The use of biomass, on the other hand, has the potential (if managed properly) to be a "CO2 neutral” source of energy and chemicals, essentially closing he carbon cycle. The CO2 absorbed by and incorporated in this biomass could be enough to offset the CO2 generated by biomass industry processes.
How are bioproducts
made?
Bioproducts are made using biomass as a raw material. Raw materials for industry can also use
biomass left over from conventional agriculture, forestry and marine
activities, as well as municipal works and industrial processes. The biomass may have little economic value
and may be waste material that would otherwise be expensive to dispose of, such
as manure and municipal landfill wastes. Such materials, however, become valuable as
biomass. As they generate methane
through microbial processing, they can be used to generate electricity.
Biomass may also be specifically grown to serve an
industrial purpose. In some cases, crops
and trees are selected or engineered to provide biomass of a particular quality
and composition to make processing it both technologically and economically
feasible.
Manufacturing bioproducts from biomass involves a variety of
industrial techniques. For instance, new
methods for the thermochemical
processing of biomass (such as pyrolysis)
are used to generate biobased oil and gas.
These fuels can, in turn, be used to power electrical generators and
motors. Fermentation is also used to make bioproducts and biofuels.
Some bioproducts do not require biomass as a raw
material. Instead, they use inorganic
raw materials, but involve industrial techniques that use biological enzymes or microbial processing during
their manufacture.
Pyrolysis
Pyrolysis is a process that uses heat to decompose biomass in the absence of oxygen. Ground up biomass is exposed to temperatures of just under 500ºC, converting it to char and gases. The gases are then rapidly cooled, and some of them condense into pyrolysis oil. The pyrolysis oil is a mixture of water and many different organic compounds. It can be burned as is for fuel, or can be refined to yield useful industrial chemicals and higher quality fuel. The gases that are produced during pyrolysis can be burned to create heat to keep the process going.
Identifying the
issues
The arrival of new bioproducts in the lives of most
Canadians could go unnoticed. For
example, people who add a biobased cream to their cosmetic bags, or a
biodetergent to their household cleaning products, may be unaware that these
products are part of a raw material and process shift by industry.
For many people, the strongest indication that Canada’s
industry and economy are undergoing fundamental change will be public debates
in the media concerning the environmental, health, social and ethical
implications of the increased industrial use of biomass and the attendant
technologies used by bioproducts industries.
In this regard, it is likely that negative implications about the use of
biomass will also be discussed inlight of continued fossil fuel use and
associated pollution and climate change issues.
The appropriate use of land and water resources is an issue
that has arisen from the development of industrial bioproducts. Good arable land is limited, and the question
is whether we can grow crops for industry and still have enough land available
to grow food. Similar questions have
arisen in the forest sector. Changes in
the way land and water are currently used can have environmental consequences
and create conflicts among users.
Other concerns relate to conflicts about ensuring that the
risks and benefits of bioproduct development are fairly distributed. Some organizations, including he ETC Group of
Winnipeg (formerly the Rural Advancement Foundation International), fear that
inadequate patent laws and other biotechnology
regulations ensure that large corporations, rather than rural communities and developing
nations involved in the production of biomass raw materials, will
disproportionately control and benefit from the development of bioproduct
technologies.
Controversial forms of biotechnology, such as genetic
engineering, are used in the manufacture of some bioproducts. In bioproducts industries, gene transfer between organisms can be
used to isolate and enhance the performance of micro-organisms and their
catalyzing enzymes and to increase the production capacity of trees and
crops. This is of concern to some
people, although not as controversial as the use of genetically modified
organisms in food crops.
If old growth forests and other ecosystems that store large amounts of carbon are used to grow biomass
crops and fast-growing trees that have lower carbon densities, then bioproducts
industries – often promoted as a means to help fight climate change – could
contribute to the greenhouse gas problem.
Large areas of land devoted to single biomass crops for industry might
also threaten biodiversity (just as monoculture farming for food presents the
same risk). However, energy plantations
from forest biomass may be planted on abandoned farmlands, which could reduce the
pressure to harvest natural forests.
Intensive growing of crops and trees could place unusually
high demands on community water supplies.
Plantations of trees, however, are far less likely to compromise water
supplies than are agricultural crop species or even many natural grasses and
herbs. Such plantations may be a good
way to make marginal lands productive.
The large quantities of pesticides or fertilizer required to grow some crops
could also have an adverse impact on the environment. This impact can be considerably reduced by
cultivating fast-growing trees, for example, since it is usually only in the
first year or two of the rotation that chemicals are used, rather than every
year. For trees that are coppiced, pesticides and fertilizers
may not be used at all.
Bioproducts concerns may be offset by the benefits of using
biomass in industry. The downside of
bioproducts technologies, or of biomass production, may be weighed in public
debates against promises of sustainable
development, including the use of renewable resources as industrial
feedstocks, improved conservation, and various environmental, social and
economic benefits.
The benefits, risks and issues raised by bioproducts make it
critical that Canadians become well informed and able to participate in
discussions about future directions and policies. This primer is designed to inform the
debate.
Fermentation
Fermentation is a process that uses micro-organisms to perform a chain of biochemical reactions that turn sugar into other products, such as alcohols and organic acids. Before starchy biomass sources (e.g., corn) can be fermented, the starches first need to be broken down into simple sugars. This is usually done by exposing the biomass to high temperatures after adding an enzyme to act as a catalyst. Once the starches have been broken down, a micro-organism, such as yeast, is added. The micro-organism digest the sugars and produces carbon dioxide and other compounds. The micro-organism species used during fermentation depends on the desired end product. For example, a yeast called saccharomyces cerevisiae is used to ferment corn and sugar cane into fuel ethanol. This is the same species that has been used for centuries in brewing and baking.
