Biorefineries
A biorefinery is where biofeedstocks are transformed into biofuels, bioproducts and/or power or heat. Today’s biorefineries largely rely on corn grain to produce ethanol and dried distillers grain, an animal feedstock; or they use wood to produce power and/or steam for heat. Future biorefineries will use more diverse biofeedstocks and are expected to rely on plant materials like wood and grasses rather than food or feed crops. Future biorefineries will produce not only fuels (ethanol or higher energy density fuels more similar to today’s gasoline or diesel fuel) but also bioproducts such as carbon fibers that can substitute for petroleum-based chemicals. Both basic and applied research is needed to advance the state of biorefineries. ORNL biorefinery-relevant research ranges from basic genetic research to understand the genetic controls on enzymes that break cellulose into its component sugars – the first step to creating ethanol, to research on how to transform lignin into carbon fibers that could replace the steel in cars, to understanding how materials respond to the chemical and temperature conditions in biomass gasifiers.
