Our society faces a new challenge: as the current consumption model dominated by market demand is running out of breath, our society needs to adopt a more realistic and sustainable model based on the efficient and sustainable use of natural resources in order to sustain emerging economies at the standard established in the West over the last century.

Current manufacturing practices are strained by the increasing price of feedstocks such as oil and consequently of energy and petrochemicals, increasing waste cost (treatment or disposal) together with the increasing impact of legislation affecting almost all aspects of its operations (e. g., supply of raw material, manufacturing, end-use and disposal).

Legislation has had a dramatic impact on product manufacturing since human and environmental safety have attracted increased concern follow­ing publications of traces of chemicals in animal and human tissue in the 1970s and 1980s (e. g., dioxins) (Schecter, 1998). Legislation now has an influence on the type of process, process steps, emissions, end treatment of waste, illustrating how every stage of the supply chain of a chemical product has to be the least polluting possible (i. e., Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control legislation, IPPC) (Lancaster, 2010). With new regulations such as REACH and ROHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances), an important number of chemicals will have to be replaced by less harmful substitutes, shaking to the core industrial sectors like home and personal care products, the pharmaceutical industry and the agricultural sector.

Resource is a stage in the product life cycle where green chemistry can have a major impact in the future. The use of renewable, typically biomass for carbon, instead of finite resources is becoming more economically and environmentally sound, being one of the main areas of research in green chemistry along with clean synthesis, greener solvents and renewable materials. Biomass is also a resource which can be renewed within a time interval relevant to our resource consumption (see Fig. 1.1), biomass being a ‘biological material derived from living, or recently living organisms’.

The emergence of EU standards for bio-based products (Mandate M/429; see Section 1.3.1) will, in the near future, embrace life cycle considerations and introduce specifications along the whole supply chain for new and existing products on biomass content, and will further discourage the use of fossil resources in favour of renewable feedstocks such as biomass including bio-wastes.

The public and consequently the retail sector have been increasingly aware of the dangers of some unsafe practices in industry and unsafe chemicals in consumer product formulations. They are now asking manu­facturers to produce bio-derived chemicals and question the environmental impact of their production, driving the market towards green and

1.1

Comparison of production cycles of chemicals derived from biomass and oil.

renewable alternatives in many sectors, especially in home and personal care products.

In line with the EU’s innovation strategy and following the initiation of a new policy in 2006 aiming to support the development of high economic and societal value markets, the European Commission proposed further steps for the creation of lead markets. Bio-based products are the subject of one of the identified lead markets and fall into this category for several reasons (European Commission, 2007, 2009):

• use of renewable and expendable resources

• less dependency on limited and increasingly expensive fossil resources

• the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (carbon neutral/low carbon impact)

• the potential for sustainable industrial production

• potentially improved community health

• support to rural development

• increased industrial competitiveness through innovative eco-efficient products

• potential for transfer to other regions of the world including the transfer of appropriate technologies discovered and proven in the EU.

A recent study estimates that, by 2025, over 15% of the US$3 trillion global chemical market will be derived from bio-derived sources (Vijayendran, 2010). Yet another study highlights the technical feasibility of over 90% of the annual global plastic production of 270 Mt being substituted by bioplastics. In 2005, bio-based products already accounted for 7% of global sales and around €77 billion in value in the chemical sector. EU industry accounted for approximately 30% of this value. Estimates of the ad hoc advisory group for bio-based products have identified active pharmaceutical ingredients, polymers, cosmetics, lubricants and solvents as the most important sub-segments (Commission, 2009). Active pharmaceutical ingredients in particular, with 33.7% of global chemical sales, are expected to be the chemical segment with the highest percentage sales of products produced using biotechnological processes. It is predicted that Europe will be strong in sales in the following sub-segments: active pharmaceutical ingredients, polymers and fibres, cosmetics, solvents and synthetic organic compounds.