This week’s issue of Science
takes a look at work that could help bridge the gap
between biomass fuel production and traditional
petrochemical engineering. Modern
society relies on petrochemicals not only for our primary transportation needs,
but also for most
of the chemicals and polymers that we use. With the
increased focus on using woody and agricultural stock to create
biofuels, most notably bioethanol, it is worth asking if these feedstocks can support the rest of our petrochemical needs.

The issue contains a letter that focuses on two
papers published this year, one by Bond et al.
in Science,
and one by
Lange et
al. in Angewandte Chemie
International Edition. The articles look into whether
carbohydrates from
biorefining processes can be used
to create compounds that look and
react like more traditional petrochemical feedstocks, which have less oxygen than carbohydrates. If this
is possible—or, more importantly, if it is feasible—then
biomass could be used as a starting material for our existing petrochemical infrastructure.

The two papers focus on the compound levulinic acid, which is formed, along with
formic acid, when six-carbon sugars are reacted with acids. The
levulinic acid can undergo a hydrogenation reaction to form
γ-valeroactone (GVL), at which point the two papers diverged.

Bond’s team proposed a method
that would eliminate CO₂
from the GVL in water, giving a mixture of
isomeric butenes; these can be linked together, or oligimerized, into longer hydrocarbons and be used directly as fuels. As an added bonus, this
process is carried out at a pressure where the CO₂