Wood completely broken down into its component parts

Crude oil is getting scarce. This is why researchers are seeking to substitute petroleum-based products – like plastics – with sustainable raw materials. Waste wood, divided into lignin and cellulose, could serve as a raw material.

A pilot plant has been set up to handle this division on a larger scale. The pilot plant opened on 2 October as part of the new building constructed for the Fraunhofer Center for Chemical-Biotechnological Processes CBP in Leuna.

While vast quantities of petroleum is still being consumed in factories and heating systems today, even the majority of synthetic materials are derived from the ''black gold'', wghose supplies are not infinite.

Certain industries that are heavily reliant on petroleum are consequently looking for alternatives. Thus, for instance, carbohydrates could replace the petroleum used to make plastics. But this choice also leads to moral conflicts – the ''barrel of oil or bowl of food'' debate – because carbohydrates, such as starches and sugars, are foods.

One option for obtaining carbohydrates is to use wood as a source, for example. It mainly consists of cellulose and hemicelluloses, in other words, carbohydrates and lignin. These substances were hitherto only procured in the production of cellulose (pulp) for wood-based paper production. But only 50 per cent of the wood was a viable substance, the rest would be converted into energy, that is to say, burnt and thus consumed as bioenergy.

In addition, lignin is contaminated, since sulphur compounds are typically used as a tool to break up the wood. So for many products, lignin is out of the question; it cannot be post-processed in systems that involve catalysts.