Green Biorefinery

Starting point

Due to the restructuring of the European agriculture and the possible reduction of the milk quota huge amounts of forage-grassland could be spare within the next years. Official estimations stress that the available grassland-biomass could amount to 500,000 to 1,000,000 tons dry matter a year only in Austria in future. In order to keep these areas cultivated - which is essential for the highly desirable preservation of cultural landscape of Austria - new innovative utilisation pathways for green biomass are required.

Challenge

The biorefinery projects aimed to research basic technologies for the processing and utilization of renewable raw materials using the example of grassland biomass. At the same time, the basic components extracted from this raw material are to be developed into marketable products. In analogy to petrochemistry, the Green Biorefinery is to provide the feedstock for new polymer processes using renewable raw materials.

Results

The basic idea of the Green Biorefinery consists in using the whole plant in a cascade of processing stages. The processes use dead leaves, grass, clover or lucerne to yield a range of various products. These renewable raw materials are currently abundant and can be converted into energy and new materials used in production processes: Renewable energy (biogas), Chemicals (e.g. lactic acid, amino acids), Biogenic materials, Plant fibers Within the program "Factory of the Tomorrow" a few projects concerning the Green Biorefinery have been in progress.These resulted in a remarkable knowledge base in an internationally topical field of research; this will secure Austrian research and economy a head start in the development of new approaches to the utilization of renewable raw materials.

The Characteristics of the Green Biorefinery include: o Zero-waste and zero-emission extraction of valuable substances from grass (all residue material is used in a biogas plant) o Energetically self-sufficient operation of the plant o Active contribution to the preservation of meadows (extensification of agriculture)

Foto: Fotoland OÖ