The renewable future of materials : How to produce our everyday products once we phased out fossil oil and gas

Summary

Several professionals realised recently that there are three, and only three options to source fossil free carbon-based materials: using biomass, applying CO 2 capture and utilisation technologies, and using recycled materials. In our discussions with colleagues and other stakeholder we realised that it is difficult to grasp the differences and similarities between these three feedstock options for the production of materials. However, when seen from a chemical and polymer science angle, there is a logical structure underlying these three production routes for carbon-based materials. It is therefore that we wrote this booklet. - In the first two chapters we highlight the role of carbon in our everyday materials, and we present a framework of the basic similarities between all carbon-based materials. Building on this framework, we then describe how the three different feedstock routes can contribute to our future materials supply: Biomass in Chapter 3, CO2 technologies in Chapter 4 and recycling in Chapter 5. Chapter6 is dedicated to the complexities in the production chains for materials, and the roles of specific stakeholders towards realising the materials transition.