Feeding a hungry bioeconomy perspectives

Copyright © NNFCC 2021
Perspectives on feeding a hungry
bioeconomy
Adrian Higson
Bioplastics Innovation Forum
4-5 November 2021

A specialist business consultancy with over 18
years of bioeconomy experience
Providing clients with a strategic view of feedstock, technology, policy and
market development across the bioeconomy.
Enabling informed business decisions and sustainable business strategies.

Feeding a hungry economy
We live in an economy addicted
to fossil fuel.
This addiction is
damaging and slowly
killing the planet.
How can we switch to a healthier diet?

What’s healthy?

Priorities and circumstance
Source: Adapted from van Dam and Junginger (2011)
“Carbon management policies: Global practices in sustainability indicators and assessment”, an OECD Workshop Proceedings
https://www.nnfcc.co.uk/news-oecd-workshop-proceedings

Climate change urgency

A net zero economy
‘The UK should set and vigorously pursue an
ambitious target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
(GHGs) to 'net-zero' by 2050, ending the UK's
contribution to global warming within 30 years.’
Priorities
Focus on zero emission renewable technologies.
Low carbon solutions for hard to decarbonise
sectors.
Elimination of emissions through carbon capture
and storage.
Improve biodegradable waste management
Increase biomass stocks

A diet of biomass
Findings:
Sustainably harvested biomass can play a
significant role in meeting long-term
climate targets, provided it is prioritised
for the most valuable end-uses.
Managing biomass stocks is an important
component of global climate mitigation
strategies.
Source: Climate Change Committee “Biomass in a low carbon economy”
https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/biomass-in-a-low-carbon-economy/

Biomass - the flexible food
Physical characteristics limit technical processability
Geography and logistics limit economic viability

A varied diet of biomass
Cereal and
Oil Crops
Energy Crops
Forestry
Residues

So much more than feedstock
Sustainability is regional and personal.
Policy restrains demand and places
sustainability criteria to avoid damage to
regulating and supporting services.
Regulating – climate, air quality, water, soil
Supporting – Habitats, diversity
Cultural – Recreation, tourism, spiritual needs
Provisioning – food, water, materials
How to find a balance between demand for
provisioning and cultural services. And
furthermore between provisioning services?

Population, consumption and land

Preference/Perceptions on feedstock
sustainability
Food versus Fuel and indirect land use
change dominate views on the use of
food crops.
Residues
Forestry
Food Crops
Wastes
Forest products avoid food issues but still invoke
questions on land use change, biodiversity and
carbon debt.
Forest and agricultural residues are generally
accepted as sustainable within extraction limits.
Wastes are considered preferred raw materials by policy
makers although have definition and unintended
consequences issues.

Feeding chemicals and material production
Reduce consumption
Circular business models
Process and material efficiency
Alternative materials
Metals and glass both have
functional and energy issues
Sustainable carbon sources
Recycled carbon
Direct Air Capture
Biomass

An industry take on the carbon diet
Source: Unilever
“Carbon management policies: Global practices in sustainability indicators and assessment”, an OECD Workshop Proceedings

Familiar dishes
Direct blending of renewable naphtha
into cracker feeds allows bio-attributed
production of 1000’s of chemical
derivatives.
The use of natural gas grid allows mass
balanced production of bio-attributed
chemicals through the introduction of
biomethane.

Ethanol Value Chain
Globally, the only large
scale BECCS project is
based on the production
of bioethanol.
Source: E4tech & LCAworks
Better
routes?

Value beyond carbon
Energy Environ. Sci., 2021, 14, 4358-4376
Macromolecular Bioscience 7(2):105-17
Taking advantage of product value and process stoichiometry to
oxygenated intermediates.
Targets for biotech based production.

Effective use of biomass
Deploy biorefinery principles ensuring
the optimum use of all components of
biomass.
Best practice in process design for
efficient material conversions.
Follow cascading principles of material
use followed by energy recovery with
carbon capture, utilisation and finally
storage
Co-development of product and
systems and infrastructure to enable
circular use. https://www.bbnet-nibb.co.uk/
@BBNet_NIBB

Sequestering carbon in the economy
Circular economy and BECCS

A gas based diet
Source: Lanzatech
“Carbon management policies: Global practices in sustainability indicators
and assessment”, an OECD Workshop Proceedings
https://carbonrecycling.net/
@CRecycle_Net
Production based on methane, carbon monoxide
and carbon dioxide.
(Prof Papoutsakis, U of Delaware).

Biomass utilisation
Conflicts
Land management for food, leisure,
biodiversity, and environment.
Biomass demand for transport fuel
out competes other demands.
Ethanol to Jet versus ethanol to
chemicals.
LPG as a cracker feed versus off-gas
heating.
Biomass use to achieve negative
carbon emissions (BECCS) prevents
development in other sectors.
Synergies
Sustainable demand supports
regenerative agriculture and forestry.
Renewable and recycled carbon.
Production of LPG/naphtha with
aviation fuel and diesel.
Drop-in solutions for current
petrochemical (naphtha, methane).
CO2 processing with green hydrogen
development.

Some concluding thoughts
The use of biomass is currently the only way to turn off the
fossil fuel tap.
However excessive consumption will damage sustainability
efforts.
Careful policy management is required to guide biomass to
where it’s most needed.
What constitutes a valuable use of biomass is still a matter of
debate!
Finally, biobased products are a functional form of biomass,
and through cascading use, eventually a feedstock for BECCS.

Thank You for listening
While the use of biomass to produce fuel, chemicals & material
isn't necessarily sustainable, the use of fossil fuels is
unquestionably unsustainable.
a.higson@nnfcc.co.uk
@biobasedchem

Feeding a hungry bioeconomy perspectives

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