Valorization of by-products and raw material inputs in the biofuel industry

About the project

As biofuel production increases worldwide, the market value for by-products has continued to change. By-products originally having strong market value may become saturated in the market with lower profitability. The use of these by-products for innovative products may therefore allevi­ate economic and environmental pressure for the commercial biofuel industry.

There are many potential useful substances that can be extracted from the by-products from the biofuel industry. Their subsequent uses can include for example use as feed, chemicals and energy. Moreover, further value can be added to the raw material inputs by cascading their use for new products prior to use in biofuel production.

This report aims at identifying possibilities for the biofuel industry to add value to their product outputs in addition to cascading use of raw materials for increased valorization, with special atten­tion devoted to the ethanol and biodiesel industry.

The report outlines different possibilities to extract proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, amino acids from the by-products in addition to their use as chemical building blocks for other processing tech­nologies. Raw materials used for the production of biofuel have also been identified as possible inputs to a variety of biorefinery systems. While there are many options available for valorization of the commercial biofuel industry, the promotion of advanced biofuels, environmental perfor­mance guidelines, market acceptance and competitiveness may be barriers to improving the current biofuel production performance.