by Ahmed Abdellah* (Advanced Biofuels USA)When dealing with the conversion of raw materials into biofuels and biochemicals, the first step is to break down raw materials. During this process, the raw material may go through bailing, grinding, and condensing.
Then, the material which is essentially composed of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin can be broken down into the building blocks of biofuels. Products and co-products may include ethanol, hydrogen, carbon char, bio-oils, flavorings, industrial glues, and other industrial chemicals.
The major biorefinery platforms are the sugar platforms and the thermochemical platforms (including syngas platform). The sugar platform breaks down biomass into component sugars. These component sugars can then undergo fermentation to produce various fuels.