D 2.1.1 Note on literature review concerning market ... - Biorefinery

Biopol - Deliverable <strong>2.1.1</strong>
Political reforms and activities of the EU have impacts on the development of biorefinery concepts,
too. With REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) for
example, the European Commission aims at a basic reform to solve existing problems related to
chemical substances. REACH is a EU regulation that covers the production and use of chemical
substances. Within this regulation new chemical substances that have to be accredited have to pass
sophisticated testing requirements with the result that a lot of enterprises use further on existing
instead of new substances. Thus there are too less incentives for the development of new and maybe
more ecological materials and substances like products that are made of renewable feedstocks
(Bundesministerium für Verkehr, Innovation und Technologie Austria 2005).
Other examples are the “White Paper – Energy for the future: Renewable sources of energy” (1997)
and the “Green Paper - An European Strategy for Sustainable, Competitive and Secure Energy” (2006)
of the European Commission which have established political targets for an energy production based
on renewable materials. Furthermore, the European Parliament and the Council have formulated
targets for the use of renewable resources for the production of transportation fuels in 2003. As a
consequence, the oleo-chemistry for example had problems concerning the supply of rapeseed as one
of their main feedstocks. Especially since the public support of biofuels in many European countries
rapeseed oils are used in increasing amounts for the production of biodiesel with the direct
consequence of increasing prices for rapeseed oil.
Biorefinery activities
The basic technology to enhance the use of biomass will be the adoption of biorefineries which is
considered to detach crude oil based refineries. “A biorefinery is a facility that integrates biomass
conversion processes and equipment to produce fuels, power, materials and/or chemicals from
biomass” (Biorefinery.nl 2007). In contrast to already existing plants which use single bioprocesses or
rather refer to single product lines the biorefinery-concept aims at integrating and connecting of
different bioprocesses. The petroleum refineries could serve as a model. At this the (fossil) raw
materials are holistic used to produce beside the intrinsic product several by-products. The targets for
biorefinery concepts are the same. Biorefineries also use multiple forms of biomass to produce a
flexible mix of products, including fuels, power, heat, materials and - the core of this chapter -
chemicals (Biorefinery.nl 2007). Against this background it has to be noted that residues can be used
as raw materials for biorefineries as well. Only a small proportion of the harvested and converted
biogenic raw materials are brought to the market (depending on the product 10 % – 90 %). Hence
there are high potentials of residues which can be used as raw materials in biorefinery plants. The
“Lenzing AG” in Austria for example recovers out of residues acetic acid, furfurals and xylitol
(Bundesministerium für Verkehr, Innovation und Technologie Austria 2005).
Biorefinery concepts don’t aim primarily at developing new products. It rather aims to produce “old”
substances in a new way and to awake “sleeping chemicals”. In a biorefinery, biomass is converted
into high-value chemical products and fuels (both gas and liquid). By-products and residues, as well as
some portion of the fuels produced, would be used to fuel on-site power generation or cogeneration
facilities. Figure 7 shows a typical value chain of the so-called white biotechnology which is
comparable to the value chain of biorefineries.
Market introduction and development of biorefinery concepts and related products
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