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

Biopol - Deliverable <strong>2.1.1</strong>
Figure 7: Value chain of the white biotechnology
Agricultural
(by)products
Sugars
Chemical-physical
treatment and/or
enzymes
Cell factory:
Biocatalysis or
Micro-organisms
Biospecialities
Food ingredients
Pharmaceuticals
Fine chemicals
Biomaterials
Base chemicals
Biofuels
Ethanol
Hydrogen
Source: Own illustration based on the European Technology Platform for Sustainable Chemistry
(SusChem) 2007
Searching available literature sources biorefinery concepts were found in U.S. agricultural and forest
products industries, where such facilities produce food, feed, fibre or chemicals, heat and electricity to
run plant operations. An example is the “Archer Daniels Midland” (ADM) complex in Decatur which
is one of the largest processor of corn, wheat, soybeans and cocoa on a global scale. The core product
of the industry is starch and its products. But it is a declared aim to make the production of starch
more attractive by looking and developing markets for co-products of the wet milling process. The
company has a plant in Decatur where industrial enzymes, lactic and citric acid, amino acids as well as
ethanol are produced in a corn wet-milling process. The chemical products, which are produced, are
used in detergents, foods and plastics. The ethanol is used as a transportation fuel or as a solvent. A
further example for a biorefinery concept is market by “Arkenol”. Thereby a variety of bio-based
chemicals and transportation fuels are produced via an acid hydrolysis. A third example is the starchbased
and first large-scale PLA facility of Cargill Dow, which is exploring the use of lignocellulosic
biomass such as corn stove or wheat straw to produce lactic acid, poly-lactid-acid (PLA), ethanol and
other industrial products. It was started up in 2002 with a 300 million pound capacity (Zwart 2006).
In Europe the following biorefineries (or more precisely plants that follow the biorefinery concept)
could be identified which are listed in table 4:
Market introduction and development of biorefinery concepts and related products
Fine chemicals
Bulk chemicals
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