Chemicals from biorenewable feedstock

The depletion of fossil feedstock as a source for fuels, chemicals, and energy is driving the transition of our economic model towards a more sustainable bio-based economy. Use of renewable resources and the production of industrial (bio)chemicals in a biorefinery approach contributes to the development of such a bio-based model.  However, value creation from plant biomass (lignocellulosic resources) is mostly restricted by their use for energy production,  and furthermore, is limited to the cellulosic part. This restricts the current economic viability of existing biorefineries. Therefore, significant efforts are made in using bio-based chemicals for the replacement of traditional fossil sources used in industry for non-energy purposes, such as in the production of bulk-, intermediate-, fine- chemicals, pharmaceuticals and organic materials. In our group we develop new synthetic pathways for arenes starting from the phenolic building blocks obtained by the cleavage of lignin.