Green Chemistry and the Biorefinery - The Economic Utilisation of Food Co-Products - page 5

The biorefineries based on classical agricultural crops (cereal, sugarbeets,
oilseed crops) are likely to be developed in ''mid-Europe''.
Biorefineries based on imported biomass will be established mainly in or
very near to large harbours (like Rotterdam).
The development of biorefineries in South Europe is more dicult to
predict. It could be either connected to the area of industrial harbours or
to (new) regional crops.

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The BIOPOL (2009) project gave some predictions about the most likely
regions for biorefinery development in connection to the biomass availability.
The main conclusions were: ''Western Europe has the best prospects for
biorefinery development. It has: high agricultural yields, vast amounts of
lignocellulosic agricultural side streams, considerable forestry and good
possibilities to sell biorefinery side products. The countries in the East of
Europe have good opportunities to improve agricultural yields. Thus, they
could become interesting countries for biorefinery establishment. Northern
Europe is currently a natural market leader of lignocellulosic biorefinery due to
the presence of large forests.''

1.1.4 Biorefinery Concepts in 2030
Some more traditional biorefinery concepts were already established on an
industrial scale in 2011. They are based on an extension and/or on upgrading
processes of existing industrial plants in the respective sectors. However, there
will emerge other, newly developed biorefinery concepts that will be well
established in 2030. In 2011, these biorefinery concepts were still only in the
research, development or demonstration stage. For some of the following future
biorefinery concepts the first pilot plants are being built in Europe in 2011.

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1.1.4.1 Starch and Sugar Biorefineries
Starch and sugar agroindustries have a long experience in starch fractioning
and/or fermentation and distillation. They are therefore a perfect candidate to
integrate biotech processes for first- and second-generation bioethanol and, in a
second step, other fermentation products. Starting from production based on
starch and sugar crops, the industrial units will progressively use lignocellulosic
feedstocks and integrate fractionation processes. The first steps will be the
integration into the supply chain of cereal straw and, in a second step, of
dedicated lignocellulosic (mainly herbaceous) crops.
The integration scenario does not concern only biomass diversification but
also the valorisation of side products of the lignocellulose deconstruction:
lignin, C5-sugars from hemicellulose and C6-sugars mainly from cellulose. The
utilisation of lignin as an energy source by cogeneration will be progressively
replaced by the development of new chemistry based on lignin. The ethanol
production from C5-sugars, on account of the poor conversion yield, will be
replaced by the development of a new C5-chemistry (by biotech and/or