From Plant to Product

Recently there has been a ton of talk about our environment and how the products we use affect it. Switches from plastic to cardboard straws, plastic to paper bags are just a few examples of ways people are trying to fight back. And this is what most people think when they hear the word "bio-product", a crappy alternative to a traditionally useful product. But let's be honest here, no one would rather eat ice cream with a wooden spoon rather than the plastic option, but it makes us feel better when we do. So, what do we do? can we have our cake and eat it too? But the term bioproduct is much wider definition than most of us think, for starters, many plastics can be "Bio-products" known as bio-plastics. How does this work though? IT all starts with the plant, all plant life has carbon within them in the form of cellulose and hemicellulose, which are long chains of enzymes that are broken into fermentable sugars such as glucose and xylose through processes such as enzymatic hydrolysis. (Lesson 18).

Now this is cool and all but what do we do with these sugars when we have them? This is where we enlist the help of small microorganism that we all know as yeast. similar to baking methods, by feeding these sugars to yeast, (which they happily eat as their food source), they then convert these sugars into ethanol and CO2. (Lesson 19)

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, bioethanol offsets roughly 10% of U.S. gasoline consumption (Dept of Energy). But this is more than just fuel to us as a society, it was a proof of concept, showing that bio-based products could be significantly present in our lives.

Another example is in lesson 21. In this lesson we talked about how PLA (polylactic acid) is produced and used in many bioplastics that are being produces today. Even PET, which is one of the most widely used plastic across the world, is making to jump to bio-based plastics in certain industries. Coca-Cola, for example, introduced their PlantBottle(TM) which replaces about 30% of the carbon in PET to a plant-based material. (Lesson 21)

A little side-track but coincidentally enough, I happen to interview an employee of Cargill for my Supply Chain class named Patrick Woerner, who happened to run their bio-diesel division, he talked to us about the process and governing regulations for that industry. According to him, there is a required 5% of the mixed diesel in the state of Minnesota that is required to be Bio-diesel in the winter, this number jumps dramatically to 20% in the summer months. Just another way that these products are being incorporated in our lives.

So, in conclusion, if I wanted you to walk away from this post knowing anything it would be this: We use chemical processes to break down bio-mass, turning it into sugars, we then feed these sugars to microbes such as yeast who ferment it and change it into CO2 and, other outputs. We then can use these outputs to generate bio-based plastics and other bioproducts. While these products are not perfect, they compost only under very specific conditions, and often end up in landfills. But, looking on the bright side, these products are not only changing the world in the present, they could very well lead us to new innovations and ideas that make father leaps in the space of creating a renewable-product centered society. L18. Crops to Sugar: BBE 1002 (001) Biorenewable Resources (Fall 2025). canvas.umn.edu/courses/517263/pages/l18-crops-to-sugar?module_item_id=14884389. L19. Fermentation: BBE 1002 (001) Biorenewable Resources (Fall 2025). canvas.umn.edu/courses/517263/pages/l19-fermentation?module_item_id=14884395. L21. Other Pathways to Products: BBE 1002 (001) Biorenewable Resources (Fall 2025). canvas.umn.edu/courses/517263/pages/l21-other-pathways-to-products?module_item_id=14884407. “Biofuel Basics.” Energy.gov, www.energy.gov/eere/bioenergy/biofuel-basics.