7. Biomass valorization: bioethanol upgrading to butadiene

Bioethanol is nowadays produced almost exclusively from biomass by fermentation. However, nowadays technologies for the direct trasnformation of lignocellulosic biomass to ethanol present unsatisfactory performances for industrial applications.. So far, synthesis of chemicals from bioethanol have been put into practice only in regions where the cost of sugars is low, such as in Brazil. Several chemicals can be sythesized strating from bioethanol. In this chaoter, we shall deal with the upgrading and homologation of ethanol into butadiene, by means of the Lebedev and Ostromisslensky routes.