Integrated Biorefineries

Biorefineries are industrial plants, which are based on the use of biomass, instead of fossil fuels, for production of fuels, chemical base materials and energy. These are comparable with petrochemical refineries in many aspects of their operations and products. It is said that the era of the fossil fuels is at its end, not because of its ending resources, but because of finding new technologies that are more environmentally friendly and economic. Biorefineries are not yet fully operational but are in the midway. Many exhibition pilot-plants are made and working, while a lot of experimental tests are yet on the way. The carbon is the essential material for production of the organic substances and products. We have an enormous source of carbon in the biosphere in the form of CO۲ of the atmosphere and carbonates of the earth crust. Both of these sources are continuously adsorbed by plants, algae and autotrophic microorganisms by the use of solar energy. The biomass of these organisms has an amount of carbon around ۵۰% percent of its weight. This carbon can be converted into a wide spectrum of useful products like biofuels, bioplastics, organic acids, solvents, etc. Different processes are used for these conversions: physical, chemical and biological. Biological processes are more advanced and produce less environmental problems. The diverse metabolic power of microorganisms is used here to produce the products. Nearly, all of the routine refinery’s products can be produced by the biorefineries. In this lecturespecifications of the biorefineries and some examples of working ones in the world and Iran will be presented.