Integrated biorefineries are currently being designed and built, differing in fundamental waysfrom previous smaller scale biomass conversion facilities that produced fuels or power or value-addedproducts. This paper will examine the different approaches to designing biore-fineriesworldwide, with particular emphasis on North America and Europe. It will survey current andplanned biorefinery efforts, examining examines how the biorefinery’s multiple product streamsand higher value products enhance the financing and construction of large-scale plants, while theready availability of low-cost feedstocks will help displace significant portions of currentpetroleum usage for transportation fuels and chemical intermediates.The emerging integrated biorefinery is built on the con-cept of cheap sugars from cellulosicbiomass. Recent breakthroughs in plant culture, biotechnology and engi-neering contribute tothose cheaper sugars. Virtually all of the needed conversion steps have been proven at thebench-scale and are now being scaled up to pilot-scale, continuous, integrated operations. Theresults of detailed process modeling show that biorefineries can produce product streams that arecompetitive with products from existing petrochemical complexes and petroleum refineries.Modeling also indicates the areas of needed R&D focus for reducing capital and operating costs.
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