Biobased Monomers

In the material use of petroleum, the production of materials or polymers takes up a large share. In the same way, the material use of biomass for the production of polymers offers great potential. In addition to biogenic polymers produced directly from microorganisms or plants, the production of monomers from biogenic raw materials with subsequent chemical polymerisation is an efficient way to obtain a real CO2 sink. It is important that not only so-called drop-in monomers are produced, which are supposed to replace the petroleum-based monomers 1:1. Ethylene for polyethylene from glucose makes no sense with a mass yield of only 30 % and would neither be economically viable nor would it really be ecological. Oxygenated monomers such as butanediol, succinic acid or furandicarboxylic acid have a better mass balance and can be produced more efficiently from biomass than from fossil raw materials. It is particularly interesting when the biogenic raw materials have properties that are not found in the molecules of fossil raw materials, i.e. when they have completely new polymer or material properties.

The following examples give an impression of our current activities in this field:

• In our work on synthetic chemo-enzymatic reaction pathways, for example, we have developed new reaction routes to 1,4-butanediol, 2,3-butanediol, isobutanol or acetoin from sugars.
• Based on waste streams from the pulp industry (terpenes), we have developed a new class of chiral polyamides that are superior to fossil polymers in properties such as hardness and transparency.
• By optimising integrated whole-cell biotransformation processes, we have provided long-chain dicarboxylic acids for bio-based polyesters and polyamides.