Abstract
The challenges of climate change, soil degradation through industrial agriculture, unpredictable rainfall and longer droughts, and the toxic legacy of industrial chemicals in our bodies have a common source in the global petroleum economy. The material economy must be transformed in concert with the transitioning energy economy. A post-petroleum material economy needs to replace petroleum-based chemical and material feedstocks with nontoxic, preferably endlessly recyclable materials from renewable feedstocks for our current and future material usage. Perennial industrial crops could meet these needs while also sequestering carbon, restoring soil organic matter, and increasing water retention, thereby mitigating multiple climate concerns while reducing the toxic burden of current chemical and materials feedstocks.
There is a promising body of perennial industrial crops that are nondestructively harvested that could replace fossil fuels as feedstocks for materials and chemicals. Such feedstocks could utilize marginal lands (thereby not competing with land needed for food and fuel), remove carbon from the air (via biosequestration), restore soil organic matter, and increase water retention to address current global drought. As perennial crops, these feedstock source options have powerful ongoing carbon sequestration capacity whose potential has not yet been fully realized.
Perennial industrial crops could provide biomass, starch, sugar, oil, hydrocarbons, fiber, and other products. Biomass feedstocks can replace a variety of petroleum-based chemicals currently used to manufacture solvents, resins, stabilizers, dispersants, binders, and fillers. Starch feedstocks can be used to manufacture solvents, paints, glues, coagulants, flocculants, textile finishing agents, and many other materials. Perennial industrial crop oils can be made into glycerin, soaps, lubricants, surfactants, and surface coatings. Plant-sourced hydrocarbons can be used as feedstocks for the full range of modern industrial chemistry.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Bio-based Industries Consortium(2016) European bioeconomy in figures. http://biconsortium.eu/sites/biconsortium.eu/files/news-image/16-03-02-Bioeconomy-in-figures.pdf. Accessed 14 July 2017
Edenhofer O (2014) Technical summary. In: Edenhofer (ed) Climate change 2014: mitigation of climate change, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK/New York
El Bassam N (2010) Handbook of bioenergy crops: a complete reference to species, development and applications. Earthscan, London
European Bioplastics (2017) Industrial use of agricultural feedstock, position paper; http://docs.european-bioplastics.org/2016/publications/pp/EUBP_pp_feedstock_availability.pdf
European Bioplastics (2015) Bio-based building blocks and polymers in the world – capacities, production and applications: status quo and trends towards 2020. European Bioplastics Association.
Farmer T, Mascal M (2015) Platform molecules. In: Clark J, Deswarte F (eds) Introduction to chemicals from biomass, Wiley series in renewable resources, 2nd edn. Wiley, West Sussex, pp 89–155
FAO (2014) Climate-smart agriculture sourcebook. FAO, Rome
Frost JW, Lievense J (1994) Prospects for biocatalytic synthesis of aromatics in the 21st century. New J Chem 18:341–348
International POPS Elimination Network (IPEN) (2017) Comments to UN Environment Assembly resolution 2/7 on green chemistry and sustainable chemistry. http://ipen.org/news/ipen-comments-green-chemistry-and-sustainable-chemistry. Accessed 14 July 2017
Lane J (2015) The DOE’s 12 Top biobased molecules – what became of them. In: BioFuels Digest. www.biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2015/04/30/the-does-12-top-biobased-molecules-what-became-of-them. Accessed 14 July 2017
Lane J (2017) The biobased economy: measuring growth and impacts. BioFuels Digest. http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2017/02/28/the-biobased-economy-measuring-growth-and-impacts/. Accessed 14 July 2017
Müssig J, Slootmaker T (2010) Types of fibers. In: Müssig J (ed) Industrial applications of natural fibers. Wiley, West Sussex
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (2009) The bioeconomy to 2030: designing a policy agenda. OECD Publishing, Paris
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (2011) Future prospects for industrial biotechnology. OECD Publishing, Paris
Plant Resources of Tropical Africa Online (2017) PROTA4U database available at www.prota4u.org. Accessed 14 July 2017
Philp J, Ritchie R, Allan J, OECD Science and Technology Policy Division, Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry, and Genome British Columbia (2013) Biobased chemicals: the convergence of green chemistry with industrial biotechnology. Trends Biotechnol 31(4):219–222
Singh B (2010) Overview of industrial crops. In: Singh B (ed) Industrial crops and uses. CAB, Cambridge, MA
Smith P et al (2014) Agriculture, forestry, and other land use (AFOLU). In: Edenhofer (ed) Climate change 2014: mitigation of climate change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK/New York
Theilen M (2012) Bioplastics: basics, applications, markets. Polymedia Publishers, Mönchengladbach
Toensmeier E (2016) The carbon farming solution: a global toolkit of perennial crops and regenerative agriculture practices for climate change mitigation and food security. Chelsea Green, White River Junction
Turley D (2008) The chemical value of biomass. In: Clark J, Deswarte F (eds) Introduction to chemicals from biomass. Wiley Press, West Sussex
US Department of Agriculture (2008) US biobased products market potential and projections through 2025. OCE-2008-01. USDA
US Department of Energy (2004) Top value added chemicals from biomass volume 1: results of screening for potential candidates from sugars and synthesis gas, p 10. US DOE
US Department of Energy (2007) Top value added chemicals from biomass volume 2: results of screening for potential candidates from biorefinery lignin. US DOE
World Economic Forum and Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2017) The new plastics economy: rethinking the future of plastics. World Economic Forum/ Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
Flach, M. & Rumwas, F. (editors), 1996. Plant Resources of South-East Asia No. 9. Plants Yielding Non-Seed carbohydrates. Backhuys Publishers, Leiden.
Toensmeier, Eric, 2016. The Carbon Farming Solution: A Global Toolkit of Perennial Crops and Regenerative Agriculture Practices for Climate Change Mitigation and Food Security. Chelsea Green Publishing, White River Junction, Vermont.
Niemeyer, G & Tolman, R, 2012. 2012 World of Corn Statistics Book Metric Edition. National Corn Growers Association, Chesterfield Missouri.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Toensmeier, E., Blake, A. (2019). Industrial Perennial Crops for a Post-Petroleum Materials Economy. In: MartÃnez, L., Kharissova, O., Kharisov, B. (eds) Handbook of Ecomaterials. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68255-6_28
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68255-6_28
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-68254-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-68255-6
eBook Packages: EngineeringReference Module Computer Science and Engineering