BIOREFINERIES: INTEGRATION OF DIFFERENT TECHNOLOGIES - Biomass as a Sustainable Energy Source for the Future - page 482

TABLE 15.2 Some (semi)commercially operating biorefinery examples (sizes mostly larger than 10 kt year −1 input only)

Capacity
(ktyear −1 ),
input

Company, place/country Feedstock Products Short description, reference(s)

Abengoa, Hugoton,
Kansas, United States

Corn stover, wheat straw,
switchgrass

Ethanol, CHP 320 Steam explosion pretreatment coupled with

biomass fractionation, C5/C6 fermentation,
distillation for ethanol recovery. Heat and
power is provided by means of biomass
gasification. Cogeneration of 18 MW gross
electrical power. Construction phase
(tinyurl.com/n2bhpmx)

Arkema, Marseille,
France

Castor oil Aminoundecanoic acid,

nylon-11 monomer
Glycerol
Heptanaldehyde
Heptanol
Heptanoic acid
“Esterol” (mix of esters)

n.i. Transesterification; thermal cracking of the

methylester to methylundeylenate and
heptanaldehyde; hydrolysis, reaction of the
organic acid with HBr; and finally reaction
with NH 3 . Commercial operation (Aresta
et al., 2012)

PROESA TM process; hydrothermal
pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis, and
fermentation (tinyurl.com/ltuzewk)

Beta Renewables,
Crescentino, Piedmont,
Italy

Lignocellulosics Ethanol, CHP 270

BioMCN, Delfzijl,
The Netherlands

Glycerin from 1st gen.
biodiesel

Methanol 200 Purification, reforming methanol synthesis

(tinyurl.com/l3pfuy5)

Borregaard Industries
Ltd., Sarpsborg,
Norway

Lignocellulosics, sulfite
spent liquor (SSL, 33%
dry content) from spruce
wood pulping

Ethanol, lignosulfonate 400 Pulp for the paper mill is produced by cooking

spruce chips with acidic calcium bisulfite
cooking liquor. Hemicellulose is hydrolyzed
to various sugars during the cooking
process. After concentration of the SSL, the
sugars are fermented and ethanol is distilled
off in several steps. Part of the 96% ethanol