A critical view on the environmental sustainability of biorefinery systems

Fossil resource depletion and associated global warming are the key drivers that are advocating a shift from fossil-based to a biobased economy. Biorefinery offers a sustainable and green option through decarbonization pathways to produce market-able biobased products analogous to the petro-based refinery and therefore supports bioeconomy. Both environmental and economical sustainability will be key in adopting the biorefinery systems in the context of the Industrial Revolution 4.0. Envi-ronmental impact assessment of biorefinery is a critical inter-vention toward understanding its sustainability in a wider context. Life cycle assessment tools will help in a major way in comprehensively assessing the impact with a designed methodological protocol which eventually provides environ-mental impact metrics, as well as hotspots. However, the application of life cycle assessment to biorefinery systems still needs to be optimized systematically with guidelines for ac-curate assessment with a standard protocol.

Automated summary

The depletion of fossil resources and the resulting global warming are driving the transition from fossil-based to biobased economy. Biorefinery provides a sustainable and green option for producing marketable biobased products, supporting environmental and economic sustainability. Environmental impact assessment plays a critical role in evaluating the overall sustainability of biorefinery systems in the context of Industrial Revolution 4.0.