The “Biorefinery Fact Sheet” and its application to wood based biorefining - Case studies of IEA Bioenergy Task 42 “Biorefining”

The IEA Bioenergy Task 42 “Biorefining” with its 11 member countries (A, AUS, CA, DK, G, I, IR, J, NL, NZ, USA) has the following definition on biorefining: “Biorefining is the sustainable processing of biomass into a spectrum of bio-based products (food, feed, chemicals, and materials) and bioenergy (biofuels, power and/or heat)”. Wood as a renewable and sustainable resource offers great opportunities for a comprehensive product portfolio to satisfy the different needs in a future BioEconomy. Worldwide many different wood based biorefining concepts are investigated and realised, of which the development status and the perspectives for implementation are quite different. Task 42 developed a “Biorefinery Fact Sheet” for the uniform and compact description of the main characteristics of these biorefineries and their whole value chain. The “Biorefinery Fact Sheets” are initially applied for a first selection of 15 interesting biorefinery systems identified by IEA Bioenergy Task 42, of which 6 are based on wood. Based on these fact sheets an easy and uniform comparison of the different wood based biorefinery concepts is possible. The “Biorefinery Fact Sheet” assists various stakeholders in finding their position on wood based biorefining in a future BioEconomy.