774011 Current advances in biorefineries

Type
Lecture
Semester hours
2
Lecturer (assistant)
Potthast, Antje
Organisation
Offered in
Wintersemester 2024/25
Languages of instruction
Englisch
Content

Today's global society is based on the use of fossil resources, primarily oil, natural gas and coal. The entire chemical industry - and thus all dependent industries – rely on fossil energy and material carriers. It is important not only to think about fossil fuels – as is often done in the media. Of course, oil and natural gas are used to produce fuel oil, fuel gas, gasoline, diesel and kerosene. More importantly (and often forgotten) are all the materials and substances that are naturally available to us in everyday life: plastics of all kinds, colors, chemicals, packaging or pharmaceuticals. Many of these everyday necessities have undergone various processing steps and chemical transformations, and behind some of them is even the complexity of entire industries. Ultimately, however, as diverse as they may be, they all come from the same fossil resources.
Two of today's global and future problems followed directly from the exploitation and utilization of these fossil fuels: climate change and the environmental problem. The burning of fossil fuels generates carbon dioxide. This process can to a certain extent be counterbalanced by photosynthesis, the quasi-natural "back-reaction" of combustion processes: atmospheric CO2 and water are converted into glucose and oxygen, and ultimately new organic matter, by using solar energy. However, the increasing amounts of released carbon dioxide can no longer be compensated for, which leads to an overall increase in the CO2 content of the atmosphere with the known negative climatic effects. The environmental problem is also a direct consequence of the processing of fossil resources, namely the occurrence of side reactions and waste products along the production lines and the low recyclability of many products with high environmental persistence. Fossil resources are therefore the foundation of today's global production – the current world economy and high-tech society are based on their use – but their overutilization also puts us in grave danger.
It is an undisputable scientific fact that one day the fossil resources will be used up. While the exact timing of this cannot be accurately predicted – neither the exact amount of fossil resources nor the evolution of their consumption is well known – the arrival of this event is beyond doubt. If the global society does not want to fall back into a rudimentary state of preindustrial development at that time, it must be able at that time to completely replace fossil resources in their entirety and in all applications – and the only option to do this are renewable resources. This is not just about producing energy and fuels based on other fuels, but rather the entire production lines, material fluxes, and processes of the chemical industry and its downstream industries must be converted on the basis of the new starting materials. All the materials, basic and fine chemicals, plastics, paints and pharmaceuticals as products of the petroleum-based industry, which today are naturally part of our lives, must then be produced on the basis of renewable raw materials.
Previous knowledge expected


Objective (expected results of study and acquired competences)

The lecture will enable the students to identify characteristics of biorefineries, their products and different modes of action. They will be able to reflect on current scientific endeavors in the biorefinery field and mirror its complexity and wide scope, covering both energetic and material/chemical utilization approaches. They will understand how multi-faceted, challenging and sometimes tedious, but first of all rewarding and educational, the scientific aspects of work with renewable resources, especially with regard to biorefineries, can be.
You can find more details like the schedule or information about exams on the course-page in BOKUonline.