Review of the impact of socio-economic conditions on the development and implementation of biorefineries

Abstract

• Socio-economic context is defined as a critical point to consider for biorefineries design. • Lignocellulosic biomass production potential is analyzed for Europe and America. • Industrial and logistic level are influential factors for biorefineries implementation. • A products limitation from biomass is demonstrated as a results of context variables. Biorefineries have been studied, involving technical, economic, and environmental aspects. Substantial research has identified many pathways for producing chemicals and fuels from biomass sources. Nevertheless, the implementation of biorefineries depends not only on biochemistry and technologies. In addition, biorefineries implementation needs to be supported by logistics, existing infrastructure, feedstock supply chains, market uptake opportunities, socio-economic issues, and political context. Therefore, this review paper is addressed to analyze the influence of country conditions on the development of integral biobased industries. For this, a literature review is done focused on analyzing the possible implementation of biorefineries. Four countries were selected as potential study cases to analyze the integral upgrading of biomass sources in different world regions: Colombia, Canada, Italy, and Greece. Industrialized countries can introduce biorefineries because there are established pathways to support research and development efforts and guarantee economic feasibility combined with existing plants. Nevertheless, emerging industrial and developing countries seem far from implementing biorefineries as brownfield processes since context variables do not support this change (e.g., logistics performance, industrial competitiveness). In conclusion, international cooperation and biomass trading could be feasible to make a faster economic transition in all world regions (i.e., bioeconomy instead of oil-based economy).