Giving value to the sustainable use of biomass — biorefineries

The production costs of advanced biofuels are too high to become market competitive without any governmental support. Technological breakthroughs are necessary to change this situation. Currently, the main focus within the production processes is on the production of the specific biofuels concerned. Primary residues (residues resulting from crop farming) and secondary residues (process residues) are used for feed applications in case they meet the quality requirements, and to produce heat and/or power, both for internal process use and to be fed to the national grind. A major problem is that in case the biofuel production capacity increases the amount of residues will overload existing markets for these products, resulting in decreased market prices. This was illustrated by oil-crop biodiesel derived glycerine production in recent years, resulting in the closure of a lot of biodiesel production facilities in Europe. The same situation is now occurring for conventional bioethanol derived DDGS (dried distiller’s grains with solubles). Another problem is that the production of heat and/or power from the process residues are low quality applications, resulting in relatively low market prices in case no governmental support is given (green power and/or heat support). The production of higher added-value Bio-based Products from these residues in integrated biorefinery facilities is necessary to maximise full biomass-to-products value chains, potentially making the production costs of the biofuels market competitive without any governmental support.