Biorefinery Products Other Than Fuel or Energy

The term biorefinery conveys the concept of industrial facilities that process renewable biomass, such as trees, grasses and various agricultural crops, to generate a variety of end products and raw materials for other industries, similar to the way petroleum refineries provide energy, fuel, plastics and other products or raw materials from oil.

Over the next few weeks I'll be researching and learning more about what products other than fuel or energy are made or can economically be made in biorefineries.

If you work in this field and want to help me learn more about this aspect of biorefineries, please contact me at bwaldron [att] gmail {dott} com.

The list of non-fuel, non-energy biorefinery products I've compiled so far includes textiles, food packaging, vitamins, molded plastics, resins, adhesives, lubricants, bottles and fertilizers. There is a huge list of products and materials theoretically possible from biorefineries, so the goal for the short term is to develop a list of materials currently being produced. A second list will also be developed for items expected to be economically produced in the near future, especially as direct results of or as a by-product from the current push on increasing biofuels to decrease reliance on oil and maximize the amount of carbon that stays tied up in oil reserves.

With problems come opportunities. It will be interesting to see what biorefinery opportunities open up in the next ten to twenty years!

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