Concept of Biorefinery

Biorefinery Concept
Definition
According to IEA (International energy agency) Bioenergy Task 42,
Biorefining is the sustainable processing of biomass into a spectrum of
marketable products and energy
The Biorefinery concept embraces a wide range of technologies able to
separate biomass resources (wood, grass, corn) into their building blocks
(carbohydrates, proteins, triglycerides) which can be converted to value
added products, biofuels and chemicals
Biorefinery is a facility that integrates Biomass conversion processes and
equipment to produce transportation biofuels, power and chemicals from
biomass
Challenges of Biorefinery
• Efficient and cost effective production of transportation biofuels
• From the co-produced biomaterials and biochemical, additional
economic and environmental benefits can be gained
• Biomass converted to basic products:
• Starch
• Oil
• Cellulose
• Chemicals produced such as:
• Lactic acid
• Amino acid in food industry
• Other products:
• Adhesives
• Cleaning compounds
• Detergents
• Dielectric fluids
• Dyes
• Hydraulic fluids
• Inks
• Lubricants
• Packaging materials
• Paints and coatings
• Paper and box board
• Plastic fillers
• Polymers
• Solvents and sorbents
• Most of the existing biofuels and biochemicals are currently produced in
single production chains and not within a biorefinery concept, and usually
require materials in competition with the food and feed industry.
• Their exploitation is thereby limited.
• By contrast, lignocellulosic crops reduce the competition for fertile land,
since they can be grown on land which is not suitable for agricultural crops.
• Moreover, in comparison with conventional crops that can contribute only
with a small fraction of the above standing biomass, biorefineries based on
lignocellulosic feedstocks can rely on larger biomass per hectare yields, since
the whole crop is available as feedstock
• Concerning the conversion plant, consumption of non-renewable energy
resources during biorefinery processing should be minimized, along with
related environmental impacts, while the complete and efficient biomass
use should be maximized.
Ecological Perspective of biorefinery

• Analyzes of three important agricultural and forestry cycles:

• Carbon cycle (Respiration, photosynthesis, organic matter decomposition)
• Water cycle (Precipitation, evaporation, infiltration and run off)
• Nitrogen cycle (Nitrogen fixation, mineralization, denitrification) and their
interdependencies
• System performance evaluation at plant scale
• Environmental impact evaluations carried out by means of Life cycle
Assessment (LCA)
• Biorefinery industries are expected to develop as dispersed industrial
complexes able to revitalize rural areas.
• Unlike oil refinery, which almost invariably means very large plants,
biorefineries will most probably encompass a whole range of
different-sized installations.
• In this context, several bio-industries can combine their material flows
in order to reach a complete utilization of all biomass components:
the residue from one bio-industry (e.g. lignin from a lignocellulosic
ethanol production plant) becomes an input for other industries,
giving rise to integrated bio-industrial systems.
• In addition, biomass resources are locally available in many countries
and their use, may contribute to reduce national dependence on
imported fossil fuels.
 Feedstocks for Biorefinery
• The term ‘‘feedstock” refers to raw materials used in biorefinery.
• The biomass is synthesized via the photosynthetic process that converts atmospheric
carbon dioxide and water into sugars.
• Plants use the sugar to synthesize the complex materials that are generically named
biomass.
• An important stage in biorefinery system is the provision of a renewable, consistent and
regular supply of feedstock.
• Initial processing may be required to increase its energy density to reduce transport,
handling and storage costs.
• Renewable carbon-based raw materials for biorefinery are provided from four different
sectors:
1. agriculture (dedicated crops and residues),
2. forestry,
3. industries (process residues and leftovers) and households (municipal solid waste
and wastewaters),
4. aquaculture (algae and seaweeds).
Categories of biomass feedstock
• Carbohydrates (from starch, cellulose and hemicellulose)and lignin
• Triglycerides
• Mixed organic residues
• Carbohydrates and lignin
• Carbohydrates (from starch, cellulose and hemicellulose) are
molecules of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen and are by far the most
common biomass component found in plant feedstocks.
• Six-carbon, single-molecule ‘‘monosaccharide”sugars include glucose,
galactose and mannose while five carbon sugars include xylose and
arabinose
• Sugar crops: Sugarcane and sugarbeet for ethanol production
• Starch , a polymer made of multiple glucose units
• Starch crops: Wheat and corn
• Can be fermented to ethanol after starch is broken down or used as substrate
for ethanol production
• Lignocellulosic biomass: Lignin, cellulose, hemicellulose
• Distinction between starch and cellulose is the bond between the two
hexose residues
• Starch can be easily hydrolyzed but cellulose requires harsh treatment
• Hemicellulose is a mix of 6 and 5 carbon sugars
• Cellulose and hemicellulose used for ethanol production
• Lignin is used for other purposes (chemical extraction, energy generation)
• Lignin is the largest non-carbohydrate fraction of lignocellulose
Triglycerides
• Oils and fats are triglycerides which typically consist of glycerin and saturated and
unsaturated fatty acids (their chain length ranges between C8 and C , but 16, 18 and 20
carbons are the most common).
• The sources of oils and fats are a variety of vegetable and animal raw materials. Soybean,
palm, rapeseed and sunflower oil are the most important in terms of worldwide
production
• Vegetable oils are nowadays used for production of biodiesel by reacting with an alcohol,
usually methanol.
• Like sugar and starch crops, oilseed crops are characterized by low yield and high use of
inputs.
• In the future, non-edible crops like Jatropha curcas and Pongamia pinnata, which require
lower inputs and are suited to marginal lands, may become the most widespread oil
crops for biorefinery purposes, especially in dry and semiarid regions
• Other sources of vegetable oil for biofuel conversion can be found in waste streams of
food industry, where waste edible oil is mainly generated from commercial services and
food processing plants such as restaurants, fast food chains and households
Mixed Organic residues
• Other types of biomass sources that do not fall within the previous categories are
organic fraction of the Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), manure, wild fruits and
crops, proteins and residues from fresh fruit and vegetable industries.
• The physical and chemical characteristics of this wide spectrum of biomass
resources vary largely.
• Certain streams such as sewage sludge, manure from dairy and swine farms and
residues from food processing are very wet, with moisture contents over 70%.
• Therefore, these feedstocks are more suited for an anaerobic digestion process to
generate biogas, rather than other fuels or chemicals.
• Other streams, such as organic MSW, may be more or less contaminated with
heavy metals or other elements, but represents a high potential for energy
recovery
• Clearly, the different properties and characteristic of the biomass waste require
the application of different conversion technologies.
Technological processes in biorefinery

• The aim of technological process in biorefinery is depolymerizing and

deoxygenating the biomass components.
• In order to convert biomass feedstock into valuable products within a
biorefinery approach, several technological processes must be jointly
applied.
• They can be divided in four main groups:
• Thermochemical (gasification and pyrolysis)
• Biochemical (Fermentation and anaerobic digestion)
• mechanical/physical (Size reduction, separation, extraction)
• Chemical processes (hydrolysis and transesterification, Fisher–Tropsch synthesis,
methanisation, steam reforming)
• Gasification is keeping biomass at high temperature (>700°C) with low
oxygen levels to produce syngas, a mixture of H2 , CO, CO2 and CH4
• Syngas can be used directly as a stationary biofuel or can be a
chemical intermediate (platform) for the production of fuels (FT-fuels,
dimethyl ether, ethanol, isobutene...) or chemicals (alcohols, organic
acids, ammonia, methanol and so on).
• The second thermochemical pathway for converting biomass is
pyrolysis, which uses intermediate temperatures (300–600°C) in the
absence of oxygen to convert the feedstock into liquid pyrolytic oil (or
bio-oil), solid charcoal and light gases similar to syngas