New generation urban biorefinery toward complete utilization of waste derived lignocellulosic biomass for biofuels and value-added products

Abstract

Biorefinery is an emerging strategy to progressively replace the conventional refinery. This technique aims to produce biofuels and value-added products from lignocellulosic biomass. With intensive research efforts, a number of innovative technologies have been developed to utilize the building block chemicals from biomass. However, application of the new technique needs to consider the three pillars of sustainable development, i.e., economic, social and environmental development. The concerns could be feedstock- or region-specific, resulting in completely different requirement of desired process under different circumstances. This study reviews the key design concepts and the strengths of the most promising techniques for biomass conversion. Particular attentions are paid to complete utilize all the building block components in the feedstock. Operational parameters such as energy, water, and chemicals are investigated to select desired processes for bioenergy production. The review aims to present the past, current and future research and process development for high efficiency biofuel production.