enzymes
As originally defined in the early 1990s, a biorefinery is a facility that processes commodity crops such as cereal grains and oilseeds to higher value added products such as food, fuel, fiber, feed and industrial chemicals (Realf and Abbas, 2004; Mousedale, 2008). Over the years, the biorefinery term has been extended to other commodity crops that are processed as non-conventional biomass feedstocks such as soft and hardwood trees, as well as to non-commodity dedicated energy crops. The term has also been widely used to refer to products made by microbial fermentations and products that can derived from microbial cellular biomass such as extracts derived from yeasts, other fungi, bacteria and algae. As such the term today encompasses any biological material that is derived from plant or microbial sources that can be processed to a range of high value added products. Advanced biorefinery solutions takes a holistic approach to bioprocessing to ensure that best process options are considered and validated at bench, pilot and production scale to maximize on value addition while minimizing waste stream discharges from the processing of incoming plant feedstocks.

References

Abbas, C. A. (2003). Emerging biorefineries and biotechnological applications of nonconventional yeast: now and in the future. In: The Alcohol Textbook, 4th Edition. K.A. Jacques, T.P. Lyons and D.R. Kelsall, Eds. Nottingham University Press, Nottingham, United Kingdom, pp. 171-191

Abbas, C.A. and R. Sammons (2017). High Value-Added Products from Biorefining. In: The Alcohol Textbook, 6th Edition. G. Walker, C. Abbas, M. Ingeldew, and C. Pilgrim. Chapter 35. Lallemand Biofuels & Distilled Spirits, USA, pp. 539-555.

Mousedale, D.M. (2008). Biofuels: Biotechnology, Chemistry, and Sustainable Development. CRC Press, Boca Raton First Edition. 

Realf, M.J., and Abbas, C.A. (2004). Industrial Symbiosis. Journal of Industrial Ecology 7(3-4): 5-9.