The production of industrial chemicals is a $400 billion-plus per year enterprise in the U.S. that impacts all aspects of society from personal care products to building materials.  This industry is predicated on the utilization of crude oil and natural gas.  However, a new component of the chemical industry is now emerging, namely the production of chemicals from biobased feedstocks both for utilizing renewable carbon and for generating novel molecules.  As such, the chemical industry is transitioning from solely fossil carbon-based to one that includes biology-derived carbon.  The development of conversion technologies needed to facilitate this transition was the focus of the NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals (CBiRC).

Unlike the transportation fuels market, which has a limited number of products, the chemical industry has a broad array of smaller volume products and thus requires a broader technology base than the fuels industry.  In turn, this places a higher premium on technology development.  Therefore, initial technology development for biobased chemicals is primarily focusing on chemicals with enhanced properties.  However, longer term the transition to renewable carbon as an important source of chemicals is still a vital goal, so technology being developed needs to be broadly generalizable.

The primary objective for CBiRC has been to rigorously evaluate two important concepts; a) development of efficient conversion processes for producing chemicals from biobased feedstocks must synergistically draw from both biological and chemical catalysis technology, and b) emergence of a new biobased chemical industry will be facilitated by developing a generalized framework that can produce a range of chemicals including both drop-in replacements and novel molecules from a common technological basis.  These concepts were not the basis of biobased chemical research and technology when CBiRC was founded.  The center created a unique centralized location for biological and chemical catalyst researchers and industries.  The second key concept for the center was the development of a generalized framework that is capable of being exploited to make a range of chemicals.  CBiRC developed the bioprivileged molecule concept that is flexible in its capacity to generate a series of platform chemicals, which can be further converted to existing and novel chemical products.

CBiRC has shown that integrating biological and chemical catalysis creates a generalized platform that can be leveraged to produce a range of biobased chemical products, which is vital for developing the biobased chemical industry.  The intrinsic robustness of this approach was clearly demonstrated over the past ten years.  In 2008, the center focused on producing biobased chemicals that would directly replace petrochemicals, i.e., producing the same molecule from a biomass source rather than a fossil carbon source.  This focus was driven by crude oil prices of over $100 per barrel as well as the prospect of a carbon tax to push the introduction of renewable carbon into the chemical enterprise.  Subsequently, crude oil prices have dramatically decreased and shale gas has become a price-advantaged fossil carbon feedstock.  Additionally, there has been no significant regulatory move to favor renewable carbon over fossil carbon.  Therefore, the best opportunities for biobased chemicals in the shorter term has become the production of novel chemical compounds that can impart improved performance properties in their end-use application.  The generalized platforms developed by CBiRC did not change but moved from emphasizing replacement chemicals to novel chemicals.

The technology developed through CBiRC led to nine startup company spinoffs facilitated by entrepreneurial activities initiated by the center and a number of technology licenses.  Novel biobased molecules were found and developed that imparted enhanced properties for insecticides, antimicrobials, preservatives, lubricants, and polymers.

Last Modified: 12/17/2019
Modified by: Brent H Shanks