Overview of biorefinery

Abstract

A strong reliance on fossil resources gives rise to a depletion of nonrenewable resources and negative or harmful environmental impacts. Circumvention of this energy-environment nexus has been proposed through the application of the concept of biorefinery. In this concept, biomass, an alternative renewable feedstock containing C-rich chemicals, is utilized as a replacement of the fossil-based feedstock to produce bioenergy and bio-based chemicals. Originally, biorefinery was perceived as a platform of biomass processing, which would produce primarily fuels and chemicals. To date, biorefinery harnesses a variety of sustainable and synergetic technologies that converts biomass into a wide range of profitable products such as food-and-feed for the future, biopharmaceuticals, and nutraceuticals. Due to variability of feedstock and newly emerged technologies, classifications of biorefinery are diverse and depend on the basis (e.g., source of a biomass, the generation of a feedstock, etc.) taken in consideration. A comprehensive view of biorefinery requires the consideration of processing of biomass from different origins via diversified technology platforms. Since the concept of biorefinery also concerns social aspects and location-specific technologies, various aspects of stakeholders including academia, industry, economy, and society need also to be considered. Collaboration among the various actors is facilitated if necessary key information is easily accessible. Therefore, an overview of biorefinery should cover key information related to biorefinery, such as nature of biomass, current situation, available technologies, process design methods, associated tools, and analyses of processing routes along with case studies. In this chapter, the indices representing the key information related to biorefinery are arranged alphabetically and tabulated to enhance a good understanding of the concept of biorefinery.