BioRefineries Blog

Type of post: NEWS IN BRIEF. Earlier this month, the International Energy Agency (IEA) Task 42 Biorefining in a future bioeconomy issued a new report that investigates four case studies on biorefinery pathways via a technical, economic and environmental (TEE) assessment. Report: “ Technical, Economic and Environmental Assessment of Biorefinery Concepts: Developing a practical approach for characterisation ”. Figure 1. Cover of the report The assessment is based on available generic data and its objective is to establish an open access approach containing the assessment methodology and primary data origin to create a knowledgeable community within the biorefinery sector. The results are presented in the structure of biorefinery fact sheets in order to: make the calculations and primary data transparent, accessible and updateable; keep the results summary in a compact, illustrative form for information dissemination to a broader public; facilitate stakeholder involvem...

Recently, I was searching for information to document a post when I ran into an interesting classification of biorefineries. It was based on colors that were assigned to different feedstocks. Some of the designations were familiar to me, others less so. I thought that it was a very intuitive way to learn the basics of raw materials in biorefining systems. This is why I have prepared this post about the “biorefinery true colors”. Before starting to write, I looked for other references of this classification and I only could find some presentations of the same author: Lene Lange (Professor at Aalborg University and CSO of Barentzymes AS). According to her, one can distinguish between five types of biorefineries taking into account the feedstock 1,2,3 : Blue Biorefinery based on marine biomass (fish waste and discard, algae); Brown Biorefinery based on sludge and household waste; Green Biorefinery based on fresh green leaves and grass; White Biorefinery (or Grey Biorefinery) based...

One of the key points for the expansion of the bioeconomy is the proliferation of the biorefineries in the rural areas. I am not talking only about the large plants producing huge quantities of biofuels and chemical products. The small and flexible facilities highly integrated with the surrounding environment will play a very important role. In this post, I introduce a small overview with information about a workshop focused on this second kind of biorefineries. Name: International Workshop Small-Scale Integrated Biorefineries. Date: 23 de noviembre de 2016 (8:30-18:30). Venue: Centro Cultural de la Ciencia (C3) Mincyt (Godoy Cruz, 2270, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina). Contact: Jorge Antonio Hilbert ( hilbert.jorge@inta.gob.ar ). Program The aim of this workshop is to present case studies and concepts of small-scale biorefinery units to be further localized in Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Colombia, Portugal, Spain and Germany. The workshop also aims to di...

Several top companies and research organizations of the bioeconomy landscape in Europe together to demonstrate the feasibility of various new value chains from lignocellulosic feedstocks to chemical building blocks on a commercial scale. It sounds really great. As those are the credentials of the BIOFOREVER project funded by BBI JU and whose beginning was announced on September 1 st (see press release ). The blog will follow with interest the advances of the project reporting future news. In the meantime, this post presents a summary of the key information and a short interview with Anton Robek  (my thanks for your kindness and cooperation)  from Bio Refinery Development . Figure 1. Logo of the BIOFOREVER project Key information Title BIOFOREVER (BIO-based products from FORestry via Economically Viable European Routes). Web page www.bioforever.org   General objective BIOFOREVER intends to demonstrate the conver...

Rural and agro-forestry areas in Spain, Europe and all over the world are facing major economic and social challenges. Although the characteristics of those zones vary considerably across the globe due to geographical and structural factors, maybe it is possible to consider three common general patterns: depopulation, job losses and decline in services. People, especially the young, leave for more opportunities in urban areas. Less investment happens and businesses are shut. All the foregoing redounds to services going down. And, this trend results in a difficult to stop cycle. The importance of the agro-forestry sector in the economy is declining and the phenomenon known as poverty of rural areas is not imaginary. Recently, Eurostat (the official statistics agency of the EU) announced that according to first estimates, real agricultural income in the EU has fallen by 6.0% in 2015 compared with 2014 (see press release ). However, there are reasons to look to the future of rural ...