The Joint Research Centre of the EC releases study on biorefineries distribution in the EU

Type of post: FLASH NEWS.

The Joint Research Centre of the European Commision has just released a Research Brief entitled “Biorefineries distribution in the EU”.

Research Brief: Parisi, C. (2018). "Research Brief: Biorefineries distribution in the EU". European Commission - Joint Research Centre.

The section of the BioRefineries Blog “European Advanced Biorefineries at Commercial-Scale” is one of the references.

Figure 1. Map of biorefineries producing bio-based chemicals, liquid biofuels and composites and fibres in the EU (extracted from the Research Brief)

Those are the highlights:

- 803 biorefineries have been identified in the EU, of which 507 produce bio-based chemicals, 363 liquid biofuels and 141 bio-based composites and fibres (multi-product facilities are counted more than once).

- Of those facilities, 177 are reported as integrated biorefineries that combine the production of bio-based products and energy. 

- The location of most biorefineries shows correspondence with chemical clusters and ports.

- Generally, the highest concentration of biorefineries is located in the central part of the EU, particularly in Belgium and the Netherlands.

- Agricultural resources are the feedstock source used by most biorefineries in all EU countries with the exception of Finland, Sweden and Portugal.

- Marine and waste resources are relevant in some countries but not yet highly exploited in biorefineries.