Green chemistry applied to the upgrading of bio-based chemicals: towards sustainable chemical products

The efficient production of biobased chemicals is an indispensable component for the growth of the biorefining industry. However, the development of conversion technologies to synthesise chemicals derived from renewable substrates is still one of the bottlenecks towards a fully integrated biorefining industry. The development of these technologies must include a green chemistry approach in order to be truly sustainable, and must be sufficiently broad in order to produce multiple outputs. In fact, broad based technologies provide access to multiple products as opposed to a target-based approach aimed at replacing single chemicals currently produced from fossil feedstocks. This talk will illustrate examples of the results that can be obtained by using green chemical conversions for the upgrading of renewable platform chemicals derived from the carbohydrate and lignin fraction of biomass such as levulinic acid, butyro- and valerolactone, glycerol, diols, p-coumaryl alcohol, with greener reagents and greener reaction systems.