The role of biogas solutions in sustainable biorefineries

Biorefineries strive to maximise product mix and value while contributing to the bioeconomy. Circularity and waste valorisation are some important but often neglected concepts in this context. As such, biogas solutions in biorefineries could be a key technology to improve sustainability. This study has, through a literature review and investigation into three Swedish case studies, analysed this relationship between biogas solutions and biorefineries by assessing the added value and development potential to which biogas solutions may contribute. This analysis across agricultural, forest, and marine sectors indicates that biogas solutions contribute with several added values, including through making the biorefinery more sustainable and competitive. The study also shows that biogas solutions can be an enabler of biorefinery development through making the system more resilient and versatile, as well as through improving the value of the product portfolio.

[1]  J. Rintala,et al.  Cultivation of Nannochloropsis for eicosapentaenoic acid production in wastewaters of pulp and paper industry. , 2015, Bioresource technology.

[2]  Shubin Wu,et al.  Was pretreatment beneficial for more biogas in any process? Chemical pretreatment effect on hydrogen–methane co-production in a two-stage process , 2013 .

[3]  Ricardo I. Pérez-Martín,et al.  Optimisation of processing routes for a marine biorefinery , 2015 .

[4]  Vanegas Ramirez,et al.  Biogas production from seaweed biomass : a biorefinery approach , 2015 .

[5]  T. Meyer,et al.  Anaerobic digestion of pulp and paper mill wastewater and sludge. , 2014, Water research.

[6]  G. K. Kafle,et al.  Ensiling of fish industry waste for biogas production: a lab scale evaluation of biochemical methane potential (BMP) and kinetics. , 2013, Bioresource technology.

[7]  M. Budzinski,et al.  Techno-economic assessment of a wood-based biorefinery concept for the production of polymer-grade ethylene, organosolv lignin and fuel. , 2016, Bioresource technology.

[8]  M. Eklund,et al.  Connectedness and its dynamics in the Swedish biofuels for transport industry , 2015 .

[9]  M. García-Sánchez,et al.  Effect of digestate and fly ash applications on soil functional properties and microbial communities , 2015 .

[10]  Lucie A. Pfaltzgraff,et al.  Food waste biomass: a resource for high-value chemicals , 2013 .

[12]  Pekka Ahtila,et al.  A Biorefinery Concept for Energy Intensive Industries Focusing on Microalgae and Anaerobic Digestion , 2013 .

[13]  L. Lardon,et al.  Life-cycle assessment of microalgae culture coupled to biogas production. , 2011, Bioresource technology.

[14]  G Thompson,et al.  The treatment of pulp and paper mill effluent: a review. , 2001, Bioresource technology.

[15]  Ioannis V. Skiadas,et al.  Toward a common classification approach for biorefinery systems , 2009 .

[16]  Michael Martin,et al.  Upcycling wastes with biogas production: An exergy and economic analysis , 2012 .

[17]  A. Stams,et al.  Biomethanation Potential of Biological and Other Wastes , 2013 .

[18]  K. Venslauskas,et al.  BIOGAS YIELDS FROM FOOD WASTE , 2013 .

[19]  Thore Berntsson,et al.  Algae-based biofuel production as part of an industrial cluster , 2014 .

[20]  Michael Martin,et al.  Industrial Symbiosis for the development of Biofuel Production , 2010 .

[21]  A. J. Koops,et al.  The biobased economy : biofuels, materials and chemicals in the post-oil era , 2010 .

[22]  Arnaud Hélias,et al.  Life cycle assessment of biomethane from offshore‐cultivated seaweed , 2012 .

[23]  M. S. Rodrigues,et al.  Bioproducts from Seaweeds: A Review with Special Focus on the Iberian Peninsula , 2014 .

[24]  Antonis C. Kokossis,et al.  Integrated Waste Management in Multiproduct Biorefineries: Systems Optimization and Analysis of a Real-Life Industrial Plant , 2016 .

[25]  R. Benz,et al.  Thermo-Acidic Pretreatment of Beach Macroalgae from Rügen to Optimize Biomethane Production—Double Benefit with Simultaneous Bioenergy Production and Improvement of Local Beach and Waste Management , 2015, Marine drugs.

[26]  Akram Zamani,et al.  Castor plant for biodiesel, biogas, and ethanol production with a biorefinery processing perspective , 2014 .

[27]  P. Kaparaju,et al.  Screening pretreatment methods to enhance thermophilic anaerobic digestion of pulp and paper mill wastewater treatment secondary sludge , 2013 .

[28]  Michael Martin,et al.  Industrial Symbiosis in the Biofuel Industry : Quantification of the Environmental Performance and Identification of Synergies , 2013 .

[29]  D. Viaggi,et al.  Biorefineries in the bio-based economy: opportunities and challenges for economic research , 2016 .

[30]  Ola Eriksson.  Environmental Technology Assessment of Natural Gas Compared to Biogas , 2010 .

[31]  Murphy Jerry,et al.  A perspective on algal biogas , 2015 .

[32]  M. Kouhia,et al.  Microalgae-utilizing biorefinery concept for pulp and paper industry: Converting secondary streams into value-added products , 2015 .

[33]  B. Simmons,et al.  Co-production of ethanol, biogas, protein fodder and natural fertilizer in organic farming--evaluation of a concept for a farm-scale biorefinery. , 2012, Bioresource technology.

[34]  M. T. Moreira,et al.  Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of a Swedish Dissolving Pulp Mill Integrated Biorefinery , 2011 .

[35]  Michael Nelles,et al.  Anaerobic digestion of grain stillage at high organic loading rates in three different reactor systems , 2013 .

[36]  Siddharth Jain,et al.  Emerging biorefinery technologies for Indian forest industry to reduce GHG emissions. , 2015, Ecotoxicology and environmental safety.

[37]  Wen-Wei Li,et al.  Advances in biogas technology. , 2012, Advances in biochemical engineering/biotechnology.

[38]  John Dixon,et al.  Development perspectives of the biobased economy: a review. , 2010 .

[39]  Cristián P. Bravo-Fritz,et al.  Multi-scenario energy-economic evaluation for a biorefinery based on microalgae biomass with application of anaerobic digestion , 2016 .

[40]  Maurycy Daroch,et al.  Recent advances in liquid biofuel production from algal feedstocks , 2013 .

[41]  S. Heilmann,et al.  Industrial symbiosis: Corn ethanol fermentation, hydrothermal carbonization, and anaerobic digestion , 2013, Biotechnology and bioengineering.

[42]  Peter McKendry,et al.  Energy production from biomass (Part 2): Conversion technologies. , 2002, Bioresource technology.

[43]  O. Kruse,et al.  Microalgae as substrates for fermentative biogas production in a combined biorefinery concept. , 2010, Journal of biotechnology.

[44]  P Rantala,et al.  Cost Comparison of Aerobic and Anaerobic Wastewater Treatment Systems , 1985 .

[45]  Igor Linkov,et al.  Multi-criteria decision analysis in environmental sciences: ten years of applications and trends. , 2011, The Science of the total environment.

[46]  P. Börjesson,et al.  Sustainable performance of lignocellulose-based ethanol and biogas co-produced in innovative biorefinery systems , 2013 .

[47]  Pål Börjesson,et al.  Integration potential, resource efficiency and cost of forest-fuel-based biorefineries , 2015, Comput. Chem. Eng..

[48]  Perry J. Greenbaum.  The future of energy in the post-Kyoto world , 2005 .

[49]  A. Wilkie,et al.  Stillage characterization and anaerobic treatment of ethanol stillage from conventional and cellulosic feedstocks , 2000 .

[50]  Matti Siika-aho,et al.  Ethanol and biogas production from waste fibre and fibre sludge – The FibreEtOH concept , 2012 .

[51]  G. T. Tsao,et al.  Biotechnology in China III: Biofuels and Bioenergy , 2012 .

[52]  A. Näyhä,et al.  Environmental sustainability – aspects and criteria in forest biorefineries , 2012 .

[53]  Z. Khodaparast,et al.  Review on recent developments on pulp and paper mill wastewater treatment. , 2015, Ecotoxicology and environmental safety.

[54]  Mauro Donizeti Berni,et al.  Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Production: Combine Effluent Treatment with Energy Generation in UASB Reactor as Biorefinery Annex , 2014 .

[55]  Bo Mattiasson,et al.  Anaerobic batch co-digestion of sisal pulp and fish wastes. , 2004, Bioresource technology.