Biomass as the New Carbon. Conversion of Renewable Feedstocks into Chemicals and Materials
Professor Joseph J. Bozell, Forest Products Center – Biomass Chemistry Laboratories, University of Tennessee1:00pm - Soderberg Lecture Hall, Jenness Hall
Biomass offers the opportunity of becoming a viable and economical source of raw materials for the production of chemicals because renewable feedstocks are numerous, sustainable, and domestic. Ever-improving methods of agriculture and biotechnology could ensure a continuing, environmentally friendly supply of these materials. Yet, despite the availability of an almost inexhaustible domestic source of raw materials, the use of renewables lags far behind the use of nonrenewables, particularly in the production of chemicals. What stands between the concept and realization of a vibrant renewables to chemicals industry is technology development. This seminar will discuss some of the rationale behind the use of renewables as chemical feedstocks, and illustrate these principles with an overview of research being carried out in our laboratories, including activities in biomass separation, and chemical conversion of the components of these separations (carbohydrate and aromatics) into production of nanostructural materials, chemical building blocks and polymers.
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