Forest biorefinery : the next century of innovation

Abstract

The concept of producing cel¬lulosic biofuel, bioproducts, and chemicals using ligno¬celluloses in a biorefinery has been around for over a century. Renewed interest in the biorefinery concept has more recently arisen from concerns about climate change and the depletion of fossil fuels. Much research and progress has been made in the last three decades in the area of biochemical technology, with many breakthroughs. However, the realization of the biorefinery concept remains a challenge. It is a daunting task to (1) overcome the huge barriers in developing and commercializ¬ing new technologies to the scale of several thousand tons of biomass per day, which may take several decades; and (2) to maintain the sustainability of such large scale production using natural resources.

Citation

Zhu, J.Y. 2011. Forest biorefinery: the next century of innovation. Tappi Journal. 10(5): 5.