The past 3 years have been the hottest on record, and the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirms that this is predominantly caused by man-made climate change. It has become clearer than ever that companies need to be part of the solution to provide increasingly renewable options as alternatives to carbon-intensive, petro-based products. According to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), a bio-based economy based on renewable materials could tackle climate change, with its mitigation potential estimated at 2.5 billion tons CO₂-equivalent per year by 2030.
 

While the packaging industry has made strides in reducing its carbon footprint, some areas still need improvement. For example, approximately 54 million tons of widely sought-after polymer polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is manufactured globally. According to IHS Markit, PET usage in beverage bottles is expected to grow over 5% per year over the next 5 years – and most PET produced will still be petro-based.

 

Consumers and brand owners are demanding more products made from sustainable resources and many companies are seeking to meet this growth more renewably. Sustainable technology company Anellotech was founded in 2008 for this purpose and the company is aiming to create 100% bio-based drop-in aromatic chemicals from non-food biomass, often seen as a challenge due to a lack of efficient, cost-competitive and scalable processes. However, Anellotech’s thermal catalytic biomass conversion Bio-TCat technology is helping that goal become a reality.

 

Bio-TCat is a one-reactor catalytic process Anellotech jointly-developed with its R&D partners IFPEN and Johnson Matthey. Currently using wood as feedstock, in the future other biomass (corn stover, bagasse and other non-food materials) can be dried and ground. The biomass is rapidly heated, and the resulting gases are immediately converted into hydrocarbons by a reusable, sand-like zeolite catalyst. The resulting mixture of benzene, toluene and xylenes (BTX) is identical to petroleum-derived counterparts and can be further purified and separated by using well-known commercial technologies at either grassroots or existing petrochemical infrastructures.

 

Bio-TCat performs all process reactions in one fluid bed reactor, where biomass is thermally broken down and then catalytically converted into BTX. This single-step process uses a cost-effective catalyst jointly developed with Johnson Matthey to produce bio-based BTX in commercially-attractive yields.