Recently, Chinese Academy of Engineering academician Du Xiangwan emphasized the need to focus on the development direction of "biomass manufacturing of organic chemicals". By using biomass-derived chemicals to replace fossil raw materials for production, we can promote the high-quality development of the bio-based economy.
Author Mr. Yan believes that this assertion highlights an important area that is often overlooked in the process of energy transition - bio-based chemical industry. With technological breakthroughs and policy support, the production of organic chemicals from biomass is becoming a key path to achieve the "dual carbon" goals, and has also brought unprecedented significant opportunities to the energy and chemical industries.
01 Strategic Position: Why Is Biomass Conversion to Chemicals So Important?
The current production of chemicals and materials worldwide still mainly relies on petroleum raw materials. If the raw materials are replaced with bio-based sources, it will be possible to reduce carbon emissions at the source.
Biomass is the only renewable organic carbon resource on Earth, with abundant reserves and diverse sources. The CO2 generated during the conversion and utilization of biomass can be reconverted back into biomass through photosynthesis, thus making the biomass conversion and utilization process feature "net zero carbon emissions". Compared to renewable energy sources such as wind energy and solar energy, the unique advantage of biomass energy lies in its ability to produce high-quality, clean energy and chemical products that can replace petroleum products. This is something that other renewable energy sources cannot achieve.
02 Resource Foundation: China Has Abundant Biomass Potential
Our country is a major agricultural and forestry nation, with extremely abundant biomass resources. As of 2021, the annual output of biomass resources in our country reached 3.494 billion tons. However, the total amount of biomass energy fuels that can be produced through chemical or biological conversion each year is only equivalent to 460 million tons of standard coal in terms of energy value.
Data shows that the energy potential of various organic waste in China exceeds 500 million tons of standard coal, but only about 0.6 billion tons of standard coal have actually been converted into energy, with a utilization rate of less than 14%. This indicates that the development potential of biomass resources is huge, and a large amount of resources remain unutilized effectively. China still has nearly 4 billion mu of suitable land for afforestation. If afforestation for energy production is implemented, it could contribute approximately 1 billion tons of standard coal of biomass energy annually. This resource advantage provides a solid raw material basis for the production of organic chemicals from biomass.
03 Industry Status: Diversified Development from Fuels to Chemicals
In recent years, with the strong support of national policies, the development of biobased chemical industries in China has reached a new level. By 2023, the consumption scale had exceeded 1.9 million tons, with an average annual growth rate of approximately 12%. According to incomplete statistics, China has achieved industrial production of over 40 types of biomass chemicals, and the scale of some products' large-scale production has exceeded 100,000 tons per year. By the end of 2023, the output of China's biobased new materials exceeded 1.9 million tons per year. The growth rate in the past few years was close to 9%, and since 2021, the annual growth rate has exceeded 13%.
Bioenergy has achieved clean, efficient utilization and appropriate substitution in various applications such as electricity, heat, oil, and gas. It plays a crucial role in the deep decarbonization of key sectors including industry, transportation, and construction. Particularly in emerging fields like sustainable aviation fuel and bio-methanol, the construction scale has exceeded nearly one million tons, and the potential market demand is enormous.
04 Technical Approach: Concurrent Use of Chemical Methods and Biological Methods
The preparation of biomass-based chemicals mainly relies on two approaches: the biological method and the chemical method. The biological method has mild reaction conditions and high selectivity, which can effectively reduce energy consumption; the chemical method has strong process controllability and fast reaction speed.
Chemical methods, due to their advantages such as easy control of reaction conditions and high production efficiency, have shown broad industrial application prospects and value in the large-scale conversion of biomass. Particularly, the selective conversion technology of biomass oxygen-containing derivatives can greatly increase the types of biomass-based chemicals and fuels, and has received high attention from researchers. Exploring new pathways for biomass conversion through the coupling of various catalytic methods, achieving comprehensive utilization of biomass and mixed conversion of biomass with other carbon resources, is an important development direction in the future.
05 Typical Application: Biobased Materials Open a New Era of Replacement
The market for biodegradable plastics based on biological materials is experiencing a rapid growth. In China, the annual consumption of polyethylene and polypropylene amounts to as much as 60 million tons, causing serious environmental pollution.
The main biodegradable plastics include polylactic acid (PLA), polybutylene adipate-co-bis-glycol (PBAT), and thermoplastic starch (TPS), etc. The leading enterprises in PLA production in China are actively expanding their production capacity. A subsidiary of a certain enterprise has invested 1.3 billion yuan to build a 150,000-ton/year PLA project.
Another enterprise has also made active preparations. Its first module project for producing 500,000 tons of lactic acid and 300,000 tons of PLA per year has already started construction. It is expected to be put into operation by the end of 2025. The expansion of these enterprises is precisely based on the significant market potential of bio-based materials in replacing non-degradable plastics under the plastic ban policy.
06 Challenges Faced: Raw Materials, Technology and Cost Barriers
The production of organic chemicals from biomass also faces many challenges. There is competition for biomass raw materials from various industries, mainly in the field of bioenergy. Currently, competition from other industries such as aviation fuel is also increasing.
Lignocellulose is difficult to process and requires simplification of the processing procedures. Lignocellulose is heterogeneous in structure and weight distribution, and a large number of highly customized processes are needed to convert different types of lignocellulose into chemicals and downstream products. The diverse spatial distribution of biomass sources may also pose logistics transportation or cost challenges for chemical producers. Cooperative efforts in efficient process design and technology sharing can help the industry overcome some of these problems, and small integrated biorefineries may have more opportunities.
07 Future Outlook: Biomass Chemicals Enter Golden Development Period
In the next five years, China's biomass industry will exhibit the characteristics of technological breakthroughs driving efficiency improvement, diversified application scenarios, and dual-wheel drive of policies and markets. Through the improvement of green finance and standard systems, more social environmental values will be realized. Through the low-carbon conversion of biomass resources, more unique and irreplaceable emerging industries that integrate energy transformation, rural revitalization, and low-carbon environmental protection will be cultivated.
The deep integration of renewable energy and bio-carbon sequestration conversion technologies will play a significant role in the future energy and chemical industries. Establishing a new ecological energy system based on biomass is the core to achieving the "dual carbon" goals. With continuous technological breakthroughs and sustained policy support, the manufacturing of organic chemicals from biomass is entering its golden age. Practitioners in the energy and chemical sectors should seize this historic opportunity, accelerate the layout of efficient biomass resource conversion technologies, promote the establishment of a circular economy industrial chain based on biomass, and jointly explore this trillion-dollar blue ocean market.
The future has arrived, and change is the only constant. In the tide of green development, the production of organic chemicals from biomass will undoubtedly become an important driving force for the high-quality development of the economy, and will contribute an irreplaceable force to achieving the dual carbon goals and ensuring energy security.
