Integrated forest biorefinery concepts

This paper assesses the techno-economic feasibility of expanding pulp and paper mills into more versatile bio-refineries. In the short-to-medium term, the main type of new product is expected to be transportation biofuel. Co-production of such fuel via the synthesis-gas route has the potential to significantly improve the profitability of pulp and paper mills. A biomass-fired synthesis-gas process could be directly and effectively integrated with many of today's integrated pulp and paper mills. In the case of a stand-alone market pulp mill, effective integration would necessitate simultaneous gasification of part of the black-liquor stream or removal of some lignin from black liquor. Not only would coproduction of transportation fuels at pulp and paper mills be more economic and more efficient than production in dedicated biomass conversion plants, but it could also have synergetic benefits for the recovery-boiler process