Waste Biorefinery Technologies for Sustainable Development

Volume 2 Section 4. Biological conversion processes for valorisation of biomass and waste for the production of chemicals and fuels Chapter 12 Production of Bio-based Platform Chemicals from Biomass and Wastes: Biological conversion This chapter emphasises various platform chemicals that can be derived from biomass through biological conversion processes. This will cover various microbial organisms and enzymes used in the production of bio-based platform chemicals. It will provide a comprehensive list of bio-based platform chemicals and the pathways for their production. Chapter 13 Conversion of Biomass and Wastes into Bio-Polymers/Plastics This chapter emphasises production of biopolymers and plastics from biomass through biological conversion processes. This will cover various microbial organisms and enzymes used in this process. Chapter 14 Biogas Upgradation Technologies Biogas produced from anaerobic processes typically contains impurities such as water vapor, hydrogen sulfie, ammonia, among others. Some of these impurities, like H2S, are poisonous. Water vapour reduce the calorific value and adversely affect the performance and life of the reactors. This chapter is devoted for biogas cleaning and upgradation (enrichment in methane) technologies. Chapter 15 Green Hydrogen Production from Biomass: Dark Fermentation and Biochemical Pathways Dark fermentation is an efficient process for green hydrogen. It can accept and process diversified feedstock, and uses mixed microbial species from many sources (manure, soil, wastewater treatment plants, lagoons, and sediments). The chapter will discuss the feedstocks, biochemical pathways, and the microbial populations involved in the process. The recent advances, strengths, and drawbacks of the process such as formation of inhibitory compounds will be discussed. Section 5. Model biorefineries Chapter 16 Microalgae-based Biorefineries This chapter cover process options available for microalgae based biorefineries. It discusses the photosynthetic organism, growth parameters and conditions, why microalgae is considered to be a suitable source of biofuel, lipid and carbohydrate production by algae. It focuses on lipid, lipid synthesis in microalgae, ways to enhance lipid production, discussing various ways with a focus on altered growth parameter and nanoparticle application, ways to enhance lipid extraction from microalgal cell, different cell breaking processes and their efficiency with a focus on recently developed pretreatment processes. It also discusses microalgal biodiesel, lipid to biodiesel, fuel property of biodiesel. Chapter 17 Lignin-based Biorefineries One of the major constituents of abundantly available natural biomass is lignin, and it is often underutilised. Typically, the lignin part of the biomass is destroyed while trying to recover fermentable sugars from biomass. Recent developments in biomass pretreatments with the help of greener solvents like DES and IL enable the recovery of lignin. Once recovered, they can serve as feedstock for biorefinery to yield biofuels and chemicals typically by thermochemical methods such as gasification, pyrolysis, hydrothermal carbonization etc. This chapter is devoted to deal with the recent developments in lignin conversion. Section 6. Circular biorefinery and LCA Chapter 18 Integration of Renewable Energy Systems in Circular Biorefineries This will explore the possible means to integrate Renewable Energy Systems Biorefineries to enhance their economic feasibility. Chapter 19 Circular Economy Principles and Resource Recovery in Biorefineries Circular economy is gaining increased attention in the context of today's rapid economic development and associated excessive consumption of natural resources. The principles of circular economy such as reuse, repurpose and recycle will covered. The contribution of biorefineries to achieve the circular economy goals will be addressed Chapter 20 Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Sustainability Metrics in Biorefineries Life cycle analysis is a prominent tool to assess the sustainability and economic feasibility of any process. The principles of LCA, viz. goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment and improvement analysis will be introduced and their application in biorefineries will be discussed. The success of the biorefineries depends on their life cycle. Chapter 21 Techno-economic Analysis of Circular Biorefinery Systems Assessing the economic potential is essential for the implementation of any new process. The methods and tools relevant for the estimation of costs and economic benefits with specific reference to biorefinery systems will be covered. Section 7. Future perspectives Chapter 22 Challenges and Opportunities in Scaling Up Circular Biorefinery Technologies This section is aimed to identify the drivers, opportunities, challenges, and barriers for businesses in circular bioeconomy both from theoretical and practical perspectives. In addition, this section will present the regional differences in those concepts for different continents. Chapter 23 Future Perspectives and Emerging Trends in Circular Biorefinery Research and Development This chapter will discuss the future perspectives for sustainable integrated biorefinery with growing emphasis on environmental sustainability. Specifically, this chapter will focus on Integration of advanced technologies, circular economy principles, development of tailored microorganisms, multi-functional biorefineries, implementation of modular and decentralised systems, cross-sector collaboration, policy support and incentives, public awareness and acceptance, life cycle assessments and environmental footprint. Special emphasis will also be given to the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in optimising biomass pretreatment and production processes.