Biorefinery Alternatives

Abstract

This chapter presents a brief review of biorefinery definitions and concepts. The state of the art of biochemical and thermochemical routes to produce biofuels and bio-based chemicals is discussed, showing the current level of the available technologies. The major pieces of equipment commonly used in the first- and second-generation project designs are also covered. A historical background on the development of process simulation environments is presented in order to give some insights into process modeling and simulation. First- and second-generation biorefinery simulations are shown at the end of the chapter.