Review: Bio-polyethylene from Wood Wastes

MENDIETA, C. M.; VALLEJOS, M. E.; FELISSIA, F. E.; CHINGA-CARRASCO, G.; AREA, M. C.

JOURNAL OF POLYMERS AND THE ENVIRONMENT

SPRINGER/PLENUM PUBLISHERS

Año: 2019 vol. 21

1566-2543

There is a global trend ofsubstitution of fossil fuels for renewable energy sources, which are preferredby reasons including sustainability, reduction of greenhouse gases thatcontribute to climate change, regional and social systems advancement, among others.This review is part of the studies carried out on the integral use of woodindustrial wastes due to its low costs and high availability. A possiblehigh-value product is ethylene, obtained by catalytic dehydration ofsecond-generation bioethanol from lignocellulosic materials and which can be aneffective alternative for the production of polymers such as polyethylene (PE),which is conventionally obtained from petroleum. Biobased polyethylene orbiopolyethylene (BioPE) may potentially contribute to close a pine biorefineryscheme to obtain high-value products, using processes of low pollution andcontributing to the global environmental balance. The process involves thefollowing stages: pretreatment, enzymatic saccharification, fermentation, dehydration,and polymerization. This review includes the different processes for secondgeneration (2G) bioethylene productions from pine wastes as an example and thetechnologies that can potentially be applied on an industrial scale for BioPEproduction, focusing on the catalytic dehydration of 2G bioethanol through theuse of catalysts able to achieve high ethanol conversions and ethyleneselectivity.