In 2004 the National Science Foundation sponsored "Catalysis for Biorenewables Conversion," a workshop designed to better define the underlying technological issues that need to be addressed in advancing the catalysis and reaction engineering science associated with converting biorenewables to industrial chemicals. The 2004 workshop resulted in "Catalysis for Biorenewables Conversion," a report which describes the outcomes of the workshop and challenges for future directions.

To build upon the past year's work, participants in the 2005 workshop, "Design of Catalyst Systems for Biorenewables," focused on the design of catalyst systems for use in the transformation of biorenewables to industrial chemicals.

Virtually all current commodity products are synthesized from a small group of platform chemicals derived from petroleum and natural gas such as ethylene, benzene, etc. The path from crude oil to final commercial product thus requires two basic steps: building block extraction and/or synthesis, then subsequent conversion to the final target. While this basic model will continue for the foreseeable future, the origins and identities of the high-volume building blocks will change. Agricultural products provide a broad array of materials in complex feedstocks, some of which might realistically replace petroleum-derived materials in the production of commodity chemicals. A 2004 DOE report, Top Value Added Chemicals from Biomass, suggested that 12 carbohydrate-derived compounds had the greatest potential as building blocks for a chemical industry based on “biorefineries.”

The presentations given at this year's workshop were planned around two themes: production of fuel from biorenewables and new monomer building blocks to replace petrochemically-derived counterparts. While the presentations directly addressed only a few of the projected building blocks described above, the diverse group of speakers uncovered synergistic approaches combining chemistry, biology, and chemical engineering.

The 2005 Workshop was held in conjunction with the 2005 Joint Green Chemistry Meeting in Washington, D.C. Workshop participants attended lectures and working sessions on June 23 and 24, 2005.