Lignocellulose value chains

To compete with the traditional fossil-based refineries, biorefineries have to exploit optimally raw materials firom plants and create multiple value chains. Therefore, the concept of a whole-plant biorefinery appears as a more convenient model. Despite the diversity of oil crops, such as soy, rapeseed, sunflower, and palm, the whole-plant biorefinery concept can be applied similarly to all of them. Differences can emerge due to the nature of the plant and the way to recover its seeds containing the vegetable oil. Palm trees, for instance, remain in the soil, and their fruits are harvested, where plants such as rapeseed or sunflower are cut every year. In both cases, the first step of the biorefinery process is to separate the oil-rich seeds firom the lignocellulosic fraction of the plant. 

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