Biorefinery
A biorefinery is capable of producing and isolating refined materials from organic (agricultural) feedstocks. Biorefineries gain efficiency by integrating multiple refinement processes into a series of processes in a single location so the feedstock can be completely processed with minimal transportation and without duplicating chemical treatments.
A biorefinery utilizes single or multi-step pretreatment to initially separate fractions of different biomass components (sugars, cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin). Pretreatment can include steam explosion, enzymatic treatments, strong or dilute acid, and/or physical treatments such as milling. Fractions of enriched components are processed in treatment steps such as saccharification, fermentation, and/or purification to produce high quality refined products. Products can be materials such as phenols or energy containing molecules such as ethanol.