Biofuels Research Infrastructure for Sharing Knowledge II (BRISK2)

Summary

Biomass contains a variety of components, which can be valorised for different applications. When biomass is processed into a biofuel, a part of the biomass is unutilized. As raw materials costs usually account for a large part of the production costs, these costs can be reduced by utilizing a larger part of the biomass for different products. The biorefinery of biomass into a product with a high added value (e.g., food protein) combined with the production of a biofuel (ethanol), increases not only the circular use of the biomass but also the economic potential of the products.

The presented virtual biorefineries demonstrate the economic potential of integrating the production of a high added value product, like protein powder for food applications, with the production of a biofuel, like ethanol, from the remaining biomass. The biorefining of a larger part of the biomass of the raw material into different products generates more revenues with the same raw material costs, which makes the biorefinery overall profitable.