Recycling Biowaste and Residuals into Chemical Products

Today, organic chemical products are predominantly produced based on fossil raw materials. The demand for climate-friendly products, legal requirements and the EU emissions trading scheme (EU-ETS) are forcing the chemical industry to focus on increased recycling and production based on CO₂ and biomass in the future. To avoid competition with the food sector associated with the industrial use of biomass, organic waste, residual materials and CO₂ are to be tapped as carbon sources. This chapter describes the volume potential of these alternative raw materials in the EU and technologies for their utilisation in basic, speciality and fine chemical products for various applications and markets. The question of the availability of sustainable carbon sources arises for the large-volume products of basic chemistry. A detailed techno-economic analysis (TEA) to produce methanol based on CO₂ is therefore presented as an example. Finally, the requirements for achieving the raw material transition by 2050 are discussed.