Benefits and Challenges for Decentralized Use of Biomass as Feedstock for Chemicals

Abstract A systematic analysis of the decentral preconversion of lignocellulosic biomass to a chemical intermediate including technological, legal, and economic aspects is presented. A case study of levulinic acid production from 14 types of biomass shows average variations of +/− 15.5 % in yield obviously due to the properties of the raw materials. As high yield is a key for economic operation, this motivates preprocessing technologies tailored to the specific raw material. Technological, legal, and economic analyses show the prospect to establishing decentral preprocessing units. A comparison with central biorefineries demonstrates that economy of scale can be counterbalanced by cheaper feedstock cost and tailored feeding technology, which paves the way for a distributed sourcing of carbon for chemicals.