Biomass bio-based products

A biorefinery is a facility that integrates biomass conversion processes and eqtrip-ment to produce fuels, power, and value-added chemicals from biomass. Biorefinery is the co-production of a spectram of bio-based products and energy from biomass. The biorefinery concept is analogous to today s crude oil refinery. Biorefinery is a relatively new term referring to the conversion of biomass feedstock into a host of valuable chemicals and energy with minimal waste and emissions. 

Opportunities, barriers, and strategies for forest bioenergy and bio-based product development in the Southern United States. Biomass Bioenergy, 31, 631-637. 

Biomass harvesting is typically far more labour intensive then pumping fossil raw materials, which - despite the incurred societal advantage in the biomass producing regions - means an economic drawback for the bio-based product. 

The US Secretary of Agriculture in the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 defined a bio-based product as a commercial or industrial product (other than food or feed) that is composed, in whole or in significant part, of biological products or renewable domestic agricultural materials (including plant, animal, and marine materials) or forestry materials or an intermediate feedstock. Some examples of agricultural resources that make up many bio-based products include soybeans, com, flax, jute, and numerous other types of crops that are harvested. In other simple terms, bio-based products refer to products wholly or partly derived from biomass, such as plants, trees, or animals. 

This chapter reviews work on the development of microbial strains for the consolidated bioprocessing (CBP) of starchy and lignocellulosic biomass to bio-based products. 

Utilization of Starchy Biomass 163 Bio-based products Bio-fuels )... 

Many industrial products, such as dyes, inks, paints and plastics, were made from biomass generated by trees, vegetables or other crops during the early 1900s. By 1970, petroleum-based products had largely replaced bio-based products. The utilization of plant-based materials decreased from about 35% to less than 16% between 1925 and 1989 (Forward, 1994). Waning interest in bio-based products was due to the relative ease and lower cost of manufacturing similar products from petrochemicals. 

The market potential for bio-based products is very promising. The Roadmap for Biomass Technologies in the United States (USDOE, 2007) forecasts a large increase in bio-based products. Production of chemicals and materials from biomass increases substantially from approximately 5.67 bilUon kg or 5% of the current production of target United States chemical commodities in 2001, to 12% in 2010,18% in 2020 and 25% in 2030. 

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