Catalytic process development for renewable materials

The book “Catalytic Process Development for Renewable Materials” has been compiled by the two editors Pieter Imhof and Jan Cornelis van der Waal both of whom have industrial catalytic experience (Avantium, Shell, Akzo-Nobel and Albermale). One is a chemist experienced in parallel catalyst screening and the other is a chemical engineer, experienced with large-scale feedstock processing, including the respective biomass processes. Obviously, this is a good combination. The Preface is written by the CTO of Royal Dutch Shell, Jan van der Eijk, on the Next Feedstock Transition which shows the general focus of the book and shows the reader that this is a very relevant topic for global players and society in general. The editors have chosen authors or teams of authors for the single book chapters and the selection is a nice mixture between academia, public organizations and industry, involving on the public organization and industry side, authors from Statoil, LLC, Amyris, Baskem, Johnson Matthey, Lignol Innovations, and diverse US National Departments. Most of the writers come from North America (US, Canada), South America (Brazil) and Europe with a focus on the Netherlands. No authors from Asia or Australia are involved. Yet, the book can be considered to aim at a condensed ‘world view’.

A first look at the content list shows that the chapters are well structured and that the reader gets much information. Since the whole biomass topic comprises a myriad of information and subtopics, we expected such massive load of information; basically this is a new chemistry that shares all the facets of the existing one. It is certainly a hard job to condense that into one book and the authors have succeeded here. The next question then is this biomass book different from all the many, many others (especially those of the good Wiley-VCH series) mentioned as “Related Titles” in the beginning of the book. I have seen only a few of them, which limits my judgment here. What can be said is that this book has its own original, authentic flavor which has been sketched already and which lies further in the fact that it is devoted to catalytic process development. The book opens with the first two chapters devoted to catalytic process development which is then exapnded on in chapters 6 to 13. In between, two chapters are concerned with two very essential chemical synthetic pathways, terpenes and carbohydrates. There is a chapter on the use of the parallel screening reactor technology, which relates back to the catalyst mission of the book and the professional experience of the two editors. Thus, the book nicely and holistically moves through chemical pathways, novel reactors, testing protocols, full process implementation and ends with life cycle assesments. Coming back to the initial question, it is now clear “yes” – this book is different and it is worth buying, even if one has already a larger selection of biomass related books. The book’s main focus is on process development (with the exception of the chapter 5) and naturally nearly all the processes involved comprise and depend on catalysts. Yet, seeing that virtually all subtitles refer to the materials, reactors or processing, the catalytic aspect of the process development is more “served” inherently and consistently than as separate and distinctive idea. This may be worth considering for a second issue of the book.

Chapters 1 and 2 are a good beginning as they give a good overall picture. Chapter 1 “The Renewable Area” is written by the editors and shows great scientific competency in covering the main players and molecules in the catalytic processes. A lot of inside information is given; at least for those interested in applied chemistry. Chapter 2 “Selecting Targets” deals with the essential platform molecules and main pathways and focuses not only on a few industrially implemented roots but aims to give the comprehensive opinions of industrial and interest groups. We learn that these changes will take place over the next 10 years or so and the validity of some information of the book will depend somewhat on such change. But this is inherent on the dynamic biomass development and any book in the field suffers somewhat from this. Most books need to be updated after 10 years. Chapter 2 repeats some of the information of chapter 1, yet this is inherent to this multifaceted subject and is by no means a criticism. On the contrary, all in all the editors managed to have really interesting and relevant information in each of the single chapters.

Chapter 3 “The Development of Catalytic Processes from Terpenes to Chemicals” and chapter 4 “Furan-Based Building Blocks from Carbohydrates” provide two facets of major chemical pathways in the overall biomass synthetic tree. Chapter 4 is nicely worked out, well-structured and full of citations. Chapter 3 is written more in the style of a publication which focuses on one topic and does not reach the generic, overall message of chapter 4.

Chapter 5 “Other Examples of Parallel Equipment Applied Beyond Screening” the tile is somewhat obscure but as it deals with a new topic, referring to true catalysts this chapter is very valuable from the methodological point of view. Maybe one or two more such methodological chapters would have tied up the book perfectly.

Chapter 6 “Braskem’s Ethanol to Polyethylene Process Development”, this may put the company’s name too much to the fore, and this may be true for at least half of the other chapters, but it does offer true insight into an authentic industrial demonstration case. Here the book fully justifies its process development ambition. Issues such as scale-up, legislation and national boundary conditions make a lively picture of successful biomass implementation.

Chapter 7 “Fats and Oils as Raw Materials for the Chemical Industry” has relevant information on catalysts and refers back to chapter 5. Compared to the other book chapters this one is much shorter and less well worked out. Yet, this is more than compensated for by the fact that the editors managed to get such an insight from one of the leading catalyst manufacturers (Johnson-Matthey).

Chapter 8 “Production of Aromatic Chemicals from Biobased Feedstock” and chapter 9 “Organosolv Biorefining: Creating Higher Value from Biomass” further cement the ambition of the book to refer to process development issues. Biorefinery flow sheets are given and concrete examples are named and discussed. The information given here is readily available from industry. Both chapters are again very nicely worked out. It is again clear that all the authors are devoted to their subject.

Chapter 10 “Biomass-to-Liquids by the Fischer-Tropsch Process” describes an eminent subject which could easily be the topic of a book on its own. Many reactor configurations are discussed and energy and carbon efficiencies allow for a good look at some of the processes. Production costs are discussed as well and an overview of the Biomass to Liquid pilot and demonstration plants is given.

Chapter 11 “Catalytic Transformation of Extractives” may have been better placed at the beginning of the book, as it deals with terpenes as in chapter 3. It is written by an excellent academic group in the field of catalysis concerned with achieving selective transformations of multifunctional substrates. Again one would ask why this chapter was placed in the middle of the process development section, but it is very valid for the overall message of the book.

Chapter 12 “Environmental Assessment of Novel Catalytic Processes …” comes back to the sustainability mission of the book (renewable materials). This is a very essential chapter and as such it should be noted that this chapter is too short and should have been much longer.

Chapter 13 “ Carbon Dioxide: …” is a gift and add-on by the editors, as the theme easily can comprise an own book and one can expect it to be part of a biomass book. Likewise for chapter 10, one could easily compile a whole book on carbon dioxide fixation and solar fuels. It was a good idea of the editors to end with this future-directed chapter. It is given in a well-organized and sufficiently detailed manner, meaning the book ends as strongly as it began.

Overall, especially for an edited book, this is a well-organized book showing the overall story, rather than giving only pieces of a puzzle. The true authentic flavor with strong industrial and academic parts as well as from platform organizations gives a nice diversity and original information not so easily found in reviews and other literature. It makes for an entertaining read. The book is certainly more suited to researchers in the field or at least with some background information. But this is true for most of the other books in the field, also the high level of complexity of the biomass subject makes it rather difficult to pitch it to a beginner’s level or even a textbook level. Yet, the editors and authors did not intend for this and in what they wanted to intend they were more than successful.