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Team:Edinburgh/Biorefinery
From 2011.igem.org
Biorefinery
A feasibility study of the engineering design and economics of a biorefinery plant concerned with the synergistic breakdown of cellulose.
Contents |
What is a biorefinery?
A biorefinery is a processing plant that converts biological raw materials into a variety of products that can be used as industrial intermediates or sold directly to consumers. Biorefineries offer flexibility in both the types of products that can be made and the raw materials that can be used; flexibility that conventional chemical/food plants aren’t able to offer. However, for this technology to be successful it has to be integrated within a bio-based economy where its raw materials can be sourced both sustainably and cheaply.
Using synthetic biology, by creating BioBricks and incorporating them into genetically designed microorganisms, it should be possible to make products from biological feedstocks that range from food additives to chemicals.
This document develops a design for a biorefinery based on our iGEM project of synergistic cellulose breakdown. We examine one engineering design for this biorefinery with a detailed process flow diagram. An analysis of the economics of this plant is also made, investigating its required capital and projected profits. This detailed economic and technical investigation is part of our bigger feasibility study, and we see it as related in important ways to questions about what role synthetic biology might have in the future, and whether biorefineries are a realistic short-term application area for this technology.
