Starch biomass for biofuels, biomaterials, and chemicals

Abstract

The success of modern biorefineries, including those using starch-based feedstocks, should be based on versatile biomass supply chains and on the production of a wide spectrum of competitive bio-based products. This chapter summarizes the current knowledge of bio-based products obtained mainly from biochemical platforms from starch- and sugar-based feedstocks. After an initial review of starch production sources and starch properties as well as starch-based end applications, this chapter reviews the state of the art of starch hydrolytic enzymes, focusing on a bio-based platform for the main value-added (bio)chemicals, biofuels, and biomaterials that can be obtained from sugar-based feedstocks. At the present time, food and biofuels applications still dominate most of the uses of starch-based raw materials. Although bio-based chemicals and biomaterials still do not account for a significant share of current biomass use, new bioeconomy sectors are emerging such as biomaterials and green chemistry, and several markets (e.g., bioplastics, biolubricants, biosolvents, and biosurfactants) are expected to grow in the near future. Several examples of biological production routes are described in this chapter, namely, for ethanol, lactic acid, and polylactic acid (PLA), polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), succinic acid, 1,4-butanediol (BDO), farnesene, isobutene, acrylic acid, adipic acid, ethylene, and polyethylene. One example of using a chemical catalytic route to obtain furan-2,5-dicarboxylic acid (FDCA) is also reported.