ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the most relevant definitions of biorefinery and its conceptual evolution from stand-alone bioprocesses to the currently known robust integrated systems. It focuses on the examples of biorefineries at different development stages to introduce the readers to think about a global perspective of their applications in the real world. The chapter also provides a global perspective of biorefinery applications in the real world and technologies of biomass pretreatment, conversion, and separation as the main pillars of these types of processes. A biorefinery processes the biomass integrally; thus, it takes into account upstream, midstream, and downstream operations. Additionally, as a biorefinery presents infinite possibilities in terms of routes and processing sequences, several strategies to design biorefineries, highlighting their pros and cons. The goal of the early-stage sustainability assessment method focused on biorefineries is to assess systematically the biorefinery products to identify those with the best potential from a sustainability point of view at early design stages.
