Biorefineries

With the exception of fruit and flowers, which can be consumed without any processing, the transition from agricultural and forestry biomass to products of interest [CHV 600] has led to the creation of a processing sector, covering food, then chemical and energy purposes. Biomass sources correspond to any source of carbonaceous organic matter produced by living organisms or their decomposition. This biomass is made up essentially of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, and to a lesser extent nitrogen, from various types of resources [CHV 600] :

• products of agricultural origin, subdivided into traditional crops of annual plants (cereals, oilseeds) sought mainly for their noble parts (grains, seeds and tubers), and crops dedicated to lignocellulosic biorefining (Miscanthus, switchgrass, etc.), as well as crop residues (straw, stalks, leaves) and livestock residues;

• forest products: logs, pellets, wood chips and residues from forestry operations or specific silvicultural crops (short or very short rotation coppice of poplar and eucalyptus);

• products of aquatic origin: algae, residues from fishing and fish farming;

• Co-products and effluents from industries that process biological materials: sawmills, paper mills, food processing industries, industrial livestock farms, etc;

• other organic waste: municipal waste, sludge from wastewater treatment plants, household refuse, green waste from parks and gardens.

Obtaining the desired functionality from the raw material or a fraction thereof is obviously one of the determining factors in the choice of the biomass-process-product combination. Two logics coexist: preserving the functionality initially present, and creating functionality by the process from a given fraction.

The aim of this article is to identify the rationale behind the creation and operation of biorefineries, in the nexus of biological resources – biorefineries – biobased products for the forestry, plant and animal sectors and their waste products. The technologies implemented...