Biorefineries

BioMatNet provides a range of resources for finding out about plant products utilised as industrial materials. It is within the EPOBIO project that makes available the results from research projects supported by the European Commission in the area of Biological Materials for Non-Food Products (Renewable Bioproducts). There is significant interest in plant derived products in the non-food application of packaging and materials in the food and drink sector. This is because of the implications of only using plant products in supply chains, the use of recyclable/compostable materials and the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. 

Integrated biorefineries

Existing industries such as cereal and corn processing; and, pulp and paper mills fit the multiple-products-from-biomass definition of a biorefinery. Their goal is to convert lignocellulosic biomass into a wide range of products, including those that would otherwise be made from petrochemicals. As with petrochemical refineries, the vision is that the biorefinery would produce both high-volume liquid transportation fuel and high-value chemicals and products.

Sugar Platform Biorefineries can break biomass down into different types of component sugars for fermentation or other biological processing into various fuels and chemicals. Thermochemical biorefineries convert biomass to synthesis gas (hydrogen and carbon monoxide) or pyrolysis oil, the various components of which could be directly used as fuel or converted to other fuels and chemicals by chemical catalysis.
 
Biological conversion: fermentation is at the heart of the biorefinery concept. Fermentation is the primary way to generate chemicals from sugars that will be the platform chemicals for other products. In traditional bio-fermentation such as large-scale commercial fermentation of starch and glucose into ethanol relatively pure streams of glucose serve as the feedstock for fermentation. Microorganisms are well developed for this industrial use including brewers yeast. they are efficient and inexpensive.

Sugar platform molecules derived from lignocellulose pose significant technical barriers. These are the hexoses glucose, mannose, and galactose, and the pentoses D-xylose and L-arabinose. The five-carbon sugars or pentoses are not metabolised by common yeast and alternative fermentation organisms are being developed by the biorefinery industry. Cost-effective processes will require the rapid, complete and simultaneous fermentation of all sugar platform molecules produced in the treatment of cellulosic biomass.
 
Thermochemical platform biorefineries: the main focus for these biorefineries is the gasification of black liquor which is the residual biomass remaining from pulping wood after cellulose is removed for making paper. The pulp and paper industry currently burns most of the black liquor in conventional boilers to provide heat, steam and generate electricity. Black liquor combustion is the largest current source of biomass energy. Gasifying the black liquor prior to combustion (pulping chemicals are still recovered from the ash) will improve efficiency, allow use of gas turbines instead of boilers for even greater efficiency, and make it possible to catalytically convert the synthesis gas to high-valuable fuels and chemicals-biorefineries.
 
Catalytic conversion: catalytic conversion of biomass has been developed for synthesis gas or syngas. Syngas is a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen produced by gasification of fossil fuels or biomass. It can be converted into a large number of organic compounds that are useful as chemical feedstocks, fuels and solvents.
The key to this transformation is a catalyst that works under heat and pressure to convert the carbon monoxide and hydrogen into larger, more useful compounds. Many of the conversion technologies were developed for coal gasification in the early 20th Century and current process economics have resulted in a shift to natural-gas-derived syngas.