Bioconversion and biorefineries: recent advances and applications

Abstract

The conversion of biomass is full of challenges requiring multiples steps for attaining high efficiencies in the transformation of this material for producing valuable goods and chemicals. There exist several biological processes capable of generating different fuels and green chemicals; however, their efficiency may be too low associated with the need of biomass pre-treatments or the maturity of these technologies may be at an early stage requiring for the development of pilot-scale experiences to get an insight on their performance under different conditions and for assessing their behaviour during extended periods. Some technical aspects are still in need of deep research to consider their implications in a global economic balance when the integration into multiple phases is proposed. Technologies for the production of fuels and the valorisation of the variety of side streams are reviewed in this chapter giving an approximation of the several possibilities of integrating these biological alternatives considering the production of ethanol, butanol, biodiesel and biogas along with the production of hydrogen. A cascade approach for applying a diversity of valorisation stages has been studied taking into account the use of different side streams for coupling biological and thermal processes in an attempt to increase process yields and reduce operating costs. The integration of anaerobic digestion and fermentative hydrogen production for the valorisation of cellulosic biomass into different processes as ethanol and biodiesel production has been assessed.