Biorefineries: Achievements and challenges for a bio-based economy
Metadatos
Afficher la notice complèteEditorial
Frontiers Media
Materia
Biomass valorisation Biorefineries Biotechnological platform Thermochemical platform Circular economy Lignin Biomass
Date
2022-11-10Referencia bibliográfica
Calvo-Flores FG and Martin-Martinez FJ (2022), Biorefineries: Achievements and challenges for a bio-based economy. Front. Chem. 10:973417. [doi: 10.3389/fchem.2022.973417]
Patrocinador
Project (FQM-176) financed by the Junta de Andalucía; Global Challenges Research Fund from Swansea University; Royal Society of Chemistry Enablement Grant (E21-7051491439)Résumé
Climate change, socioeconomical pressures, and new policy and legislation are
driving a decarbonization process across industries, with a critical shift from a
fossil-based economy toward a biomass-based one. This new paradigm implies
not only a gradual phasing out of fossil fuels as a source of energy but also a
move away from crude oil as a source of platform chemicals, polymers, drugs,
solvents and many other critical materials, and consumer goods that are
ubiquitous in our everyday life. If we are to achieve the United Nations’
Sustainable Development Goals, crude oil must be substituted by renewable
sources, and in this evolution, biorefineries arise as the critical alternative to
traditional refineries for producing fuels, chemical building blocks, and materials
out of non-edible biomass and biomass waste. State-of-the-art biorefineries
already produce cost-competitive chemicals and materials, but other products
remain challenging from the economic point of view, or their scaled-up
production processes are still not sufficiently developed. In particular, lignin’s
depolymerization is a required milestone for the success of integrated
biorefineries, and better catalysts and processes must be improved to
prepare bio-based aromatic simple molecules. This review summarizes
current challenges in biorefinery systems, while it suggests possible
directions and goals for sustainable development in the years to come.