Manufacturing with Reusable Sources

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/09/technology/techspecial/09chem.html

I found this article interesting as it shows chemists not just working on finding renewable resources but also discussing the process of making the renewable sources. The article explains more uses for renewable resources rather than just fuel for the car such as manufacturing goods. The hope is to establish biorefineres, a facility that uses biomass conversion with the goal of making a more sustainable way for mass producing items. Biomass is anything made from either living or recently living organisms. There is a compilation of different discoveries of both the process and the product which include ways to make phloroglucinol (intended to replace formaldehyde which was used to insulate houses) and the biosynthesis of propanediol which has many uses.

Submitted by Tegan Glenn