Botanochemicals and chemurgy in the petroleum drought ahead
Green plants, collectively, are still a major under-exploited resource. However, new crops and agricultural systems are being developed for the production of fuels and materials in addition to foods and fibers. Whole-plant oils and botanochemicals are being evaluated as annually renewable replacements for petroleum crude and petrochemicals, respectively. Plant derived fuel alcohols are becoming a viable supplement to gasoline and fuel oils. Polyisoprenes, terpenes, oils, waxes, alcohols, phenols, furfural, methane, and producer gas from plant sources can potentially displace petroleum derived feedstocks for the synthetic chemical industry. Moreover, new botanochemical processing methods offer prospects for reducing US dependence on imports for many specialty plant-products traditionally produced by labor-intensive methods. Extraction of essential oils, pharmaceutical intermediates, tannins, and vegetable dyes may be integrated with botanochemical processing to allow exploitation of the varied US climate for domestic production of nearly every botanical now imported.
- OSTI ID:
- 5985306
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-791062-1
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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ALCOHOLS
ALDEHYDES
ALKANES
AROMATICS
BIOMASS
CHEMICAL FEEDSTOCKS
CRYOGENIC FLUIDS
DRUGS
DYES
ENERGY SOURCES
FIBERS
FLUIDS
FUEL GAS
FUELS
FURANS
FURFURAL
GAS FUELS
GASES
HETEROCYCLIC COMPOUNDS
HYDROCARBONS
HYDROXY COMPOUNDS
LOW BTU GAS
METHANE
OILS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
OTHER ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PHENOLS
PLANTS
PRODUCER GAS
REAGENTS
RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES
TERPENES
USES
WAXES