2. Biorefinery technologies

Every biorefinery comprises three groups of unit operations , generally following one another in this order:

• deconstruction or destructuring: an operation corresponding to the physical dissociation of molecules (including polymers, e.g. fibers), up to and including the breakdown of chemical structures. Deconstruction can be analyzed at different plant scales: organs, tissues or molecules. This stage is absent in the milk biorefinery, due to its simple nature as an aqueous solution and suspension;...