About 150 years ago, in the Western World, most of our non-food home and industrial products were derived from various plant materials. The rest came from animal materials or inorganic products such as sand and iron.

From the middle of the 19th century, fossil fuels, starting with coal and then oil, became the major raw materials from which most of the chemicals are now extracted. In 1925, in the United States, 30 % of industrial products were derived from plant materials. In 1989, this figure was down to 16 %.

Since the beginning of the 1990s there has been renewed interest in carbon hydrates mainly because significant scientific and technological progress has reduced the cost of products derived from plant materials, and because environmental awareness in society demands more "green" products, especially those made from renewable resources.

In fact, plants have great potential as chemical "factories." They are able to convert carbon dioxide to solid matter via photosynthesis. Through years of evolution and centuries of selection by humans, the capacity of certain plants to produce chemicals has been directed towards the production of materials that have specific industrial uses in quantities that make it preferable to obtain the product from a plant source. The concept of "biomass refinery" as an economical source of biomaterials such as inks, pigments, paints, soaps, adhesives, biopolymeres, composites, etc. and biochemical products such as phenols, oxygenated additives, resin, etc. is getting gaining acceptance within manufacturing industries. As mentioned previously, since the beginning of the 1990s, the market for products derived from plant materials is increasing and that the costs of production, even though still higher than that of petrochemical products, is decreasing.

Vegetable oils are used more and more extensively to manufacture many biochemicals. By the year 2000, 16.3 million tonnes per year of oil and grease will be used for non-food purposes. This represents a growth of 27 % in the ten past years. In the United States, for example, 1 million tonnes per year of vegetable oil, coming from 20 different plant species, is already used for industrial purposes. Also, the starch produced from wheat, corn or potatoes is being used increasingly in the paper, glue, textiles and plastics industries.

Uses of main biochemicals

Specifically, some observations can be made related to the present and future situation for chemical products derived from plant materials, based mainly on the trends in the United States and Europe.

Coating products (paints, varnishes, gloss paints, etc.)

Reduction or replacement of solvents by

• water paints
• new inputs based on oleaginous plants, casein, vegetal pigments, phenolic
• resins of lignin, etc.

Pigments and colouring agents

Reduction or replacement of heavy metals (Pb, Ti, Cr, Zn, etc.) using substitutes depending on the colour, i.e. red (betamine), yellow (turmeric), blue (indigo). The products are more costly, and therefore their use in the market is limited, but there is a trend toward organic pigments as replacement for inorganic pigments because of their heavy metal contents, which can be very toxic.

Printing inks

Reduction or replacement of solvents and heavy metals with inks using a water or vegetable oil base, i.e. ink from soya oil has been used since 1987 and is taking a growing share of the market.

Soaps and detergents

Replacement of materials containing phosphates with biodegradable products. Japan and a quarter of the United States have already banned phosphates in such products, and many European countries will probably do the same very soon. In Canada, the part of phosphate-free products on the market has gone from 10 % to 60 % since 1990. Substitutes can be sodium carbonate, zeolites and enzymes (in 1990, 50 % of American detergents contained enzymes, while this proportion was 90 % in Europe and 95 % in Japan. The development of specifically "tailored" and easily biodegradable products, derived from vegetable or animal oils, are underway.

Below: soybean field

Adhesives and glues

Reduction or replacement of solvents, heavy metals, resins, plasticizers and preservatives of petrochemical origin. This industrial sector is where the use of vegetable oils is most widespread (40% of products).

Many raw materials are available:

• starch (the most important) lignin
• casein
• soy
• egg
• corn
• peanut and fish proteins
• sugar derived from carbon hydrates