The status of biorefineries in a circular economy

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The status of biorefineries in a circular economy

Bert Annevelinka, Lesly Garciaa & Vincenzo Motolab

a Wageningen Food & Biobased Research (WFBR) – The Netherlandsb Italian National Agency for New Technologies (ENEA) - Italy

IEA Bioenergy Conference, 6 December 2021

www.ieabioenergy.com

https://task42.ieabioenergy.com2

Task 42Biorefining in a circular economy

• Task 42 definition of Biorefining: Sustainable processing of biomass into a portfolio of marketable biobased products (food and feed ingredients, chemicals, materials, minerals, CO2) and bioenergy (fuels, power, heat)

• IEA Bioenergy Task 42 ‘Biorefiningin a circular economy’ started in Triennium 2007-2009

• Current member countries are: o Austria, Australia, Denmark,

Germany, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands & Sweden

• Joining in the 6th Triennium:o US, Turkey

Task 42 - Introduction




• Biorefining is one of the key enabling strategies of

the Circular Economy, closing loops of raw

biomass materials, minerals, water and carbon

• Biorefining is the optimal strategy for large-scale

sustainable use of biomass in the BioEconomy

• Biorefining will result in cost-competitive co-

production of food/feed ingredients, biobased

products and bioenergy combined with optimal

socio-economic and environmental impacts

(reduced GHG emissions, efficient use of

resources, etc.)

Task 42 - Introduction




• Bio-Based Chemicals: A 2020 Update

• Technical, Economic and Environmental Assessment of Biorefinery Concepts: Developing a practical approach for characterization

• Alternative sustainable carbon sources as substitutes for metallurgical coal

• Sustainable lignin valorization: Technical lignin, processes and market development

Task 42 – Technical reports (2019-2021)




Objectives:

• Underpin the sustainability claim of integrated biorefineries through Technical, Economic and Environmental (TEE) Assessments • quantitative environmental and economic

assessment approach

• with generic initial biorefinery models for iterative refinement

• encourage stakeholders to participate in the assessment of biorefinery technologies

• Provide an open access approach

Task 42 - TEE-Assessment methodology




Recent Fact Sheets:

• 3-platform biorefinery (pulp, lignin, energy) using woodchips for pulp, lignin and energy (LignoBoost process)

• 2-platform biorefinery (C5 & C6 sugar, lignin) using corn straw for the production of bioethanol and electricity & heat

• 2-platform biorefinery (C5 & C6 sugar, biogas) using sugar beet or cane for the biopolymer PHB and electricity & heat

• 2-platform biorefinery (C5 & C6 sugar, biogas) using maize for the production of biopolymer PLA and electricity & heat

• ... and more to come!

Task 42 - Biorefinery assessments and Fact Sheets




• TEE methodology further described in the IEA Bioenergy Annual report 2020

• Biorefinery country slide decks provide local information

• Cooperation with the Biorefinery Outlook project (focusing on chemicals and material-driven BRs)

• Cooperation with IETS Task XI on Industry-Based Biorefineries

• Dedicated Task 42 website

Task 42 – Other activities


http://task42.ieabioenergy.com8


Global Biorefinery Status Report 2021 (GBRSR)

• Another major deliverable of Task 42 at the end of this triennium will be the Global Biorefinery Status Report 2021 (GBRSR)

• The work on this report is still going on at this moment, leading to a draft report at the end of December 2021

• The final report will be published by the end of March 2022

• Some preliminary results will be presented in the next slides




GBRSR – Content report

1. Introduction

2. Understanding Biorefineries

3. Biorefinery status in the Task 42 countries

4. Analysis of the deployment status of biorefineries

5. Major technical and non-technical biorefinery deployment barriers & potential solutions

6. Biorefinery success stories and best practices

7. Conclusions & recommendations

Appendix 1. Key examples of Biorefineries in the Task 42 countries




GBRSR - Biorefinery classification system updatedSource: EU Biorefinery Outlook to 2030 , 2021

Pathway E: Three platform (C5 sugars, C6 sugars and lignin) biorefinery pathway using lignocellulosic biomass




GBRSR – Task 42 Biorefinery Atlas Portal

https://task42.ieabioenergy.com/databases/

• The Task 42 Biorefinery Atlas Portal gives an overview of the world-wide biorefinery deployment status

• Possibility to display only the chosen plants by selecting the desired attributes on the legend

• Possibility to display features for feedstock, production capacity, TRL refining technology and product, download self selected data subset

• BR Outlook database not yet included

• Start exploring the Portal at:

https://task42.ieabioenergy.com/databases/




GBRSR – Analysis of global biorefinery deployment

• The operational biorefineries (total number of 1,312) in the analysis originate from two databases:

o Task 42 Biorefinery Atlas Portal (915)o Biorefineries Outlook database (397)

• Data sources used in the Task 42 Biorefinery Atlas Portal were diverse with more focus on energy-driven biorefineries:

o BBI-JU (7), Biofuel Digest (82), BioRefineries Blog (6), ENEA (1), IEA Bioenergy installations database (191), IEA Task 42 publications (53), Joint Bioeconomy survey JRC-SCAR-BBI-IEA 2019 (53), Power4Bio (8) & U.S. Department of Energy (514)

• The Biorefineries Outlook database was built by Biomass Technology Group (BTG) in the ‘EU Biorefinery Outlook to 2030’ project with a focus on chemicals and material-driven biorefineries

• The analysis excluded the biorefineries in the Task 42 Biorefinery Atlas Portal that were idle (52), cancelled (22), stopped construction (12) or shut down (21)




GBRSR – Biorefineries per country

• The total number of BRs in the analysis was 1,312 (excluding cancelled BRs)

• The large number of BRs in the US (637) has been excluded from the figures to avoid distortion

• More than 40 BRs in the US, France, Germany, The Netherlands, China, Finland and Sweden

• Between 20 and 40 BRs in Austria, Belgium, Canada and Spain




GBRSR – Biorefinery Feedstocks

• The main feedstock is primary

biomass, however secondary biomass

is also an important feedstock for BRs

• The main primary biomass feedstocks

are starch crops and oil crops

• Sugar crops, lignocellulosic biomass

from crop lands/grass lands and

lignocellulosic biomass from forestry

are also important primary biomass

feedstocks

• The main secondary biomass feedstock

is other organic residues followed by

residues from agriculture and residues

from forestry

Primary biomass Secondary biomass




GBRSR – Biorefinery Feedstocks




Status – Biorefinery Conversion process

• The large number of blanks (602) have been excluded from these figures (further analysis needed for the US)

• Biochemical conversion is mostly used in biorefineries and within that category fermentation sticks out

• Chemical conversion is second in line with catalytic conversion, esterification and hydrogenation as specific technologies

• Finally mechanical and thermo-chemical conversion is often used with extraction, separation, gasification and pyrolysis as specific technologies




GBRSR – Biorefinery Conversion process




Status – Biorefinery Products

• The main biorefinery product group is still energy and especially the type fuels

• Chemicals, although produced in a much smaller number of biorefineries, are also an important product group, with building blocks as the largest type, followed by pharmaceuticals and neutraceuticals

• Materials is the smallest product group that still matters, with polymers and fibres as the main types




GBRSR – Biorefinery Products




Conclusion

• A description of the status of biorefineries in the circular economy can be found in various reports of Task 42, including the upcoming Global Biorefinery Status Report 2021

• The open source Technical, Economic and Environmental (TEE) Assessment methodology of Task 42 can be applied to analyze specific biorefinery pathways and produce Biorefinery Fact Sheets

• The newly developed Task 42 Biorefinery Atlas Portal is now available for specific stakeholder queries

• Close cooperation is needed with all types of stakeholders to generate more knowledge to further increase biorefinery deployment

• Please contact Task 42 if you have any suggestions or new information on biorefineries


Thank you for your attention

Bert Annevelink, Lesly Garcia & Vincenzo Motola

[email protected]

https://task42.ieabioenergy.com/

Thanks for valuable contributions from:

Sebastiano Dipinto & Nicola Pierro (ENEA)

Patrick Reumerman (BTG)

Johannes Lindorfer (Energie Institut an der Johannes Kepler Universität Linz)

mailto:[email protected]

https://task42.ieabioenergy.com/

The status of biorefineries in a circular economy

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