Abstract

Depletion of world recourses, increasing pollution, and climate change make us shift from linear economy to system economy - an economy of technologies integrated to reach a non-polluting zero emissions production system. Transition to renewable resources requires replacement the present crude oil refinery by biomass refinery. Along with conventional biomass refinery technologies bioengineering and nano-technologies become significant players of systems in the design of clusters of integrated biorefinery technologies. The authors consider a number of case-studies of biomass conversion into value-added chemicals and sources of energy, the steam explosion autohydrolysis (SEA) in particular. Modelling of the SEA processes is represented by a preliminary analysis of energy flows. The eMergy (energy memory) approach is applied to assess environmental impacts and sustainability.