Bioresource Technology xxx (2016) xxxxxx

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Bioresource Technology
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/biortech

Review

Anaerobic biorefinery: Current status, challenges, and opportunities

Chayanon Sawatdeenarunat a, Duc Nguyen a, K.C. Surendra a, Shilva Shrestha a,b, Karthik Rajendran a,
Hans Oechsner c, Li Xie d, Samir Kumar Khanal a,
a

Department of Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering (MBBE), University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1955 East-West Road, Agricultural Science Building 218, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), University of Michigan Ann Arbor, 1351 Beal Ave., 107 EWRE Bldg, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2125, USA
c
State Institute of Agricultural Engineering and Bioenergy, University of Hohenheim, Garbenstrasse 9, Stuttgart 70599, Germany
d
Department of Environmental Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, PR China
b

h i g h l i g h t s
 Anaerobic biorefineries are a new approach for producing biobased products.
 Most organic substrates can be used as feedstocks for anaerobic biorefineries.
 Large-scale biorefineries have the potential to maximize economic benefit.
 Small-scale anaerobic biorefineries improves living quality in developing countries.

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 3 February 2016
Received in revised form 11 March 2016
Accepted 12 March 2016
Available online xxxx
Keywords:
Anaerobic digestion
Biorefinery
Bioenergy
Value-added products
Organic feedstocks

a b s t r a c t
Anaerobic digestion (AD) has been in use for many decades. To date, it has been primarily aimed at treating organic wastes, mainly manures and wastewater sludge, and industrial wastewaters. However, with
the current advancements, a more open mind is required to look beyond these somewhat restricted original applications of AD. Biorefineries are such concepts, where multiple products including chemicals,
fuels, polymers etc. are produced from organic feedstocks. The anaerobic biorefinery concept is now gaining increased attention, utilizing AD as the final disposal step. This review aims at evaluating the potential significance of anaerobic biorefineries, including types of feedstocks, uses for the produced energy, as
well as sustainable applications of the generated residual digestate. A comprehensive analysis of various
types of anaerobic biorefineries has been developed, including both large-scale and household level
applications. Finally, future directives are highlighted showing how anaerobic biorefinery concept could
impact the bioeconomy in the near future.
2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contents
1.
2.

3.

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Potential feedstocks for an anaerobic biorefinery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.1.
Lignocellulosic biomass. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.2.
Municipal solid waste (MSW). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3.
Animal manure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.4.
Food wastes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Large-scale anaerobic biorefinery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.1.
Biogas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.2.
Digestate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.2.1.
Carbohydrates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.2.2.
Lignin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.2.3.
Solid residues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.3.
Liquid effluent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Corresponding author.
E-mail address: khanal@hawaii.edu (S.K. Khanal).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2016.03.074
0960-8524/ 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article in press as: Sawatdeenarunat, C., et al. Anaerobic biorefinery: Current status, challenges, and opportunities. Bioresour. Technol.
(2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2016.03.074

C. Sawatdeenarunat et al. / Bioresource Technology xxx (2016) xxxxxx

4.
5.
6.

Small-scale anaerobic biorefinery .

Challenges and prospectives . . . . .
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . .
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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1. Introduction
The global total primary energy consumption was reported
around 524 Quadrillion Btu (QBtu) in 2010 (Energy Information
Administration (EIA), 2013). The energy consumption is expected
to increase by nearly 50% by 2050 due to growing demand from
emerging nations such as India, China, and Brazil among others.
Currently, fossil-based fuels supply over 85% of world energy
demands. The excessive use of fossil fuels has also been linked to
several environmental issues, especially greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions and local and regional air quality degradation. The CO2
emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels alone contributes
to more than 90% of energy-related GHG emissions (International
Energy Agency (IEA), 2015). Moreover, energy security is also a
major concern for countries that rely on imports of fossil energy
resources. In the recent years, renewable energy technologies
(e.g., wind, solar, hydro, and biomass) have been promoted to
address environmental issues such as climate change and local
air quality degradation, as well as energy insecurity. The
renewable-based power generation in 2014 increased to 128 GW
which is over 40% higher than renewable power generation in
2010 (IEA, 2015). Among the various renewable energy sources,
biomass has so far been the largest single source currently being
used, especially in developing countries where biomass (e.g., firewood, crop residues, and cattle dung) is used as a primary energy
source for heating and cooking.
Anaerobic digestion (AD) is one of the most promising biotechnologies for converting diverse organic substrates, ranging from
high solid feedstocks (i.e., animal manure, food wastes, municipal
solid waste, and lignocellulosic biomass), as well as municipal
and industrial wastewaters, to energy-rich biogas (Khanal, 2008).
Although AD technology had primarily been developed and
adopted for waste stabilization, in recent years, AD process has
been widely adopted for bioenergy production. Over 14,000 commercial AD plants are already in operation in Europe, while Germany alone has more than 8000 plants (EBA, 2014). The
produced biogas is used for combined heat and power (CHP) generation, and/or upgraded to biomethane to be used as transportation fuels, or injected into natural gas grid.
In developing nations, AD processes are becoming immensely
popular for conversion of organic wastes (e.g., animal manures,
food wastes, agri-residues, etc.) into biogas. The biogas serves as
a clean energy for cooking and lighting in rural households. The
residuals after digestion, commonly known as bioslurry, serve as

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an organic fertilizer for crop production and as a fish feed for aquaculture application (Surendra et al., 2014). There have been several
successful examples of implementation of biodigester technologies
in developing countries in Asia including Nepal, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Laos among others. Using biogas for CHP generation or transportation fuels is a well-established process in
developed countries. However, producing biogas alone might not
be economically competitive, especially due to the volatility of
market and price indexes of fossil fuels (Surendra et al., 2015).
One approach to circumvent this problem is to identify and explore
alternative products/chemicals apart from bioenergy production
by adopting the biorefinery approach. The biorefinery concept is
analogous to a traditional petrochemical refinery in which multiple
products are produced from crude petroleum. According to the
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), a biorefinery is a
facility that integrates biomass conversion processes and equipment to produce fuels, power, and chemicals from biomass. Thus,
such approach aims at maximizing the profit by producing low volume high-value products while meeting the energy needs by producing low-value high volume fuels. The anaerobic biorefinery is
one of the biorefinery concepts, in which AD serves as a centerpiece to produce high-value, but low volume products (i.e., chemicals and drop-in biofuels to enhance economic viability of the
system) and high-volume but low value products (i.e., heat, electricity, and conventional transportation biofuels) to achieve energy
security. Recently many studies have discussed the biorefinery
concept in general, but there exists only limited studies primarily
focusing on the anaerobic biorefinery (Maclellan et al., 2013;
Surendra et al., 2015). This review provides an overview of the
anaerobic biorefinery concept and critically examines the recent
advancements in anaerobic biorefineries. Moreover, this review
also highlights the challenges and opportunities associated with
both commercial and small-scale anaerobic biorefineries, and outlines directions for future research and development.

2. Potential feedstocks for an anaerobic biorefinery

2.1. Lignocellulosic biomass
Lignocellulosic biomass (e.g., agricultural and forest residues,
energy crops, and paper wastes among others) is one of the most
promising feedstocks for producing bioenergy (e.g., biomethane,
biohydrogen, bioethanol, and biobutanol) and a plethora of

Table 1
The composition of selected lignocellulosic biomass.
Biomass

Cellulose (%)

Hemicellulose (%)

Lignin (%)

References

Corn stover
Wheat straw
Switch grass
Rice straw
Napier grass
Barley straw
Miscanthus
Coffee pulp
Paper waste

39.7
37.9
37.1
35.0
45.7
37.5
38.0
35.0
11.9

29.9
21.8
29.9
26.7
33.7
25.3
18.5
46.3
1.0

8.9
22.1
17.6
13.3
20.6
26.1
20.9
18.8
33.0

Teater et al. (2011)

Cui et al. (2011)
Teater et al. (2011)
Ye et al. (2013)
Reddy et al. (2012)
Monlau et al. (2012)
Vasco-Correa et al. (2016)
Karthikeyan and Visvanathan (2012)
Elliston et al. (2013)

Please cite this article in press as: Sawatdeenarunat, C., et al. Anaerobic biorefinery: Current status, challenges, and opportunities. Bioresour. Technol.
(2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2016.03.074

C. Sawatdeenarunat et al. / Bioresource Technology xxx (2016) xxxxxx

Table 2
The quantity and composition of municipal solid waste (MSW) in selected countries.
Location

Malaysia
Kuala Lumpur
China
Beijing
Shanghai
Shenzhen
United States

Waste generation rate

Composition of MSW (%)

References

(kg/capita/day)

Organic waste

Paper

Plastic

Glass

Metal

Textile fiber

Wood

1.2

74

21

NA

NA

NA

Budhiarta et al. (2012)

0.98

63.4
66.7
40

11.1
4.5
17

12.7
20
13

1.8
2.7
5

0.3
0.3
3

2.5
1.8
5

1.8
1.2
NA

Zhang et al. (2010)

14.5

27.4

12.7

4.6

8.9

8.7

6.3

EPA (2013)

Palestine
Nablus district

0.82

65.1

9.1

7.6

2.9

2.8

3.1

NA

Al-Khatib et al. (2010)

Thailand

1.15a

35.9

20.7

15.9

9.9

3.8

2.5

NA

Challcharoenwattana and Pharino (2016),

Chaya and Gheewala (2007)

Based on the municipality that has the population between 10,000 and 50,000 people.

bio-based products/chemicals (e.g., organic acids, bioplastic, succinic acid, citric acid, lactic acid etc.). The lignocellulosic biomass
has a potential to significantly contribute to global demand of
renewable energy and biobased products (Kumar et al., 2008). It
has been reported that globally more than 200 billion dry metric
ton of biomass can be produced per year while 1.4 billion dry tons
of such biomass can be produced in the U.S. alone (Khanal, 2008).
Lignocellulosic biomass is primarily composed of polymers in plant
cell walls including cellulose, hemicellulose, pectin, and lignin
along with small amounts of other organic compounds such as proteins and lipids, and minerals (Frigon and Guiot, 2010). Cellulose is
a long linear chain of homopolysaccharides of b-D-glucopyranose,
which link to each other by b-(1-4)-glycosidic bonds (Kumar
et al., 2008). Cellulose has two different structural forms, the crystalline and amorphous. The crystalline structure has a high packing
density resulting from hydrogen bonding. The complexity of this
form creates a resistance to biological degradation and significantly reduce its accessibility to cellulose degrading enzymes
(Brown, 2003). Hemicellulose is another form of heteropolysaccharides present in plant cell walls. The monomers of this compound
include hexose, pentose, deoxyhexose, and some acidic sugars. A
lower degree of polymerization and amorphous structure makes
hemicellulose more vulnerable to chemical, thermal, and biological
degradation than cellulose (Cherubini, 2010). Lignin is a nonpolysaccharide component in a lignocellulose structure, which fills
up the space between cellulose and hemicellulose, and acts as a
binder. The monomer of lignin is a phenylpropane-based compounds consisting of aromatic alcohols namely; coniferyl, sinapyl,
and coumaryl alcohol. Typically, lignin provides rigidity to plant
cell wall and is more resistant to biological degradation than to cellulose and hemicellulose. In AD of lignocellulosic feedstocks, lignin
usually remains undigested. Lignin can be used to produce energy
(i.e., heat and electricity) via thermochemical processes and various bio-based products (i.e., biopolymer and vanillin among
others) via chemical processes (Surendra et al., 2015). The composition of a selected lignocellulosic biomass is presented in the
Table 1.
2.2. Municipal solid waste (MSW)
MSW is the refuse generated during daily activities from residential and business areas. The characteristics of MSW depend
on many factors, including but not limited to, the source, location,
season, the economic and population growth status, urbanization,
and life style of people (Cheng and Hu, 2010). Karthikeyan and
Visvanathan (2012) estimated that the global MSW generation

could be as high as 9.2 million metric tons wet weight/day. The

quantity and composition of MSW generation in some selected
countries are shown in Table 2.
Landfilling, a simple and low-cost technology, has been the
most common practice in disposing the MSW. However, this conventional waste disposal practice has been associated with several
environmental issues including surface and ground water contamination (Cheng and Hu, 2010), GHGs (CH4, N2O and CO2) emissions,
and competition for valuable land around urban and suburban
areas. Additional technologies such as incineration, composting,
and AD have been adopted for the management of MSW and recovery of resources.
Incineration is a combustion process for recovery of energy
from MSW while reducing the volume of the waste. Incineration
reduces approximately 90% and 70% of volume and mass of
MSW, respectively, (Zhang et al., 2010) thereby significantly reducing required landfill volumes and the associated logistic costs.
Additionally, the clean and stable solid residue following incineration can also be used as construction materials (Cheng and Hu,
2010; Zhang et al., 2010). The incineration of MSW for power generation, however, is only economically feasible for MSW with net
caloric value of over 6 MJ/kg (Zhang et al., 2010). Furthermore,
the high cost (i.e., capital, operational, and maintenance cost) and
need for trained professionals to operate incineration plants are
additional limitations on MSW incineration. Also, incineration
plants requires special off-gas treatment systems, which is often
very costly (Zhang et al., 2010).
Composting has been used primarily for waste stabilization
with a more limited reduction in the volume of MSW. During
composting, the organic fraction of MSW (OFMSW) is biologically
converted into a more stable products known as compost (Bernal
et al., 2009). However, the compost is a relatively low-value
product.
AD technology has been applied to stabilize OFMSW and to
recover energy-rich biogas. The AD of OFMSW can be classified into
two main groups, wet AD (W-AD) and dry AD (D-AD) with total
solids (TS) content of the initial substrates being less than 10%
for W-AD, and more than 20% for D-AD (Karthikeyan and
Visvanathan, 2012). The operating organic loading rate (OLR) of
W-AD and D-AD are 25 and 512 kg volatile solids (VS)/m3/d,
respectively. It is estimated that the AD of the OFMSW produced
globally could generate enough biogas to contribute around 2% of
the total global energy consumption (Rajendran et al., 2014).
Although, AD has a potential to recover energy resources from
MSW, especially the OFMSW, conventional AD only generates single low-value product, biogas.

Please cite this article in press as: Sawatdeenarunat, C., et al. Anaerobic biorefinery: Current status, challenges, and opportunities. Bioresour. Technol.
(2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2016.03.074

C. Sawatdeenarunat et al. / Bioresource Technology xxx (2016) xxxxxx

Table 3
The characteristics and energy potential of animal manure.
Animal

Total
solids (%)

Organic
carbon (%)

Total
nitrogen (%)

Ammonia
nitrogen (%)

Methane
potential (mL/gVS)

Energy
value (kJ/kgTS)

References

Cattle
Dairy
Swine
Poultry

1430

6.512.6
NA
4.213.2
10.359.7

0.40.8
NA
0.41.1
1.05.8

0.00.2
NA
0.10.6
0.21.8

139.8
242.7
253.8
291.0

NA
15,863
19,156
13,832

Bernal
Bernal
Bernal
Bernal

1533
2270

et
et
et
et

al.
al.
al.
al.

(2009),
(2009),
(2009),
(2009),

Ro
Ro
Ro
Ro

et
et
et
et

al.
al.
al.
al.

(2007),
(2007),
(2007),
(2007),

Qiao et al. (2011)

Labatut et al. (2011)
Qiao et al. (2011)
Li et al. (2013)

Table 4
The amounts of animal manure annually generated in selected countries.

Location

Year

Annual amount

Unit

United States
England and Wales
China
Japan
Thailand

2005
2000
2010
2011
1997

31.8
112.0
2816.0
84.0
3.9a

Million
Million
Million
Million
Million

References
dry metric tons
wet metric tons
wet metric tons
wet metric tons
dry metric tons

Perlack et al. (2005)

Chambers et al. (2000)
Chadwick et al. (2015)
Komiyama et al. (2014)
Sajjakulnukit et al. (2005)

From cattle, swine, and chicken, and assuming that manure is generated 365 days/year.

The anaerobic biorefinery concept aims at maximizing the

recovery of more diverse resources from MSW in addition to the
biogas, while simultaneously remediating the waste.
2.3. Animal manure
Animal manure normally consists of feces, urine, and sometime
animal beddings and is one of the important potential feedstocks
for anaerobic biorefineries. The characteristics of animal manure
strongly depend on animal species, growth stage, and the characteristics of the feed. The characteristics and energy potential of
selected animal manures are presented in Table 3. Animal manure
is usually applied to agricultural land as a source of nutrients.
However, the excessive land application of animal manure can
result several environmental problems, including water pollution,
excessive GHG emissions, phytotoxicity, and presence of the hormones and pharmaceutically active compounds used in treating
the animals (Ro et al., 2007). Composting and gasification (for
renewable fuel generation) are some of the alternative technologies for managing animal manure. During composting, animal
manure is aerobically treated to stabilize the organic matters and
destroy the pathogens. However, the need for the costly unit
upstream processes such as dewatering and a long retention time
(Ro et al., 2007) makes the economic viability of the animal manure composting questionable. Gasification of animal manure has
merits, including compactness of the system, effective destruction
of pathogens, hormones and antibiotics, and reduced wastewater
generation. However, gasification is still a costly technology and
requires a highly efficient heat recovery system to maximize the
economic gain from animal manure gasification (Ro et al., 2007).
Due to its inherent properties such as relatively small size, high
organic content (i.e., VS), inherent presence of suitable microbes,
and good buffering capacity, animal manures have been widely
used in AD, both for producing bioenergy and for managing waste.
The amounts of animal manure annually collected in selected
countries are shown in Table 4. The effluent from an AD plant
treating animal manure is rich in nutrients such as nitrogen and
phosphorus and needs further treatment prior to disposal to environment. This nutrient-rich effluent could be land applied
commonly known as ferti-irrigation. Alternatively, the effluent
could be used as nutrient source for algal cell production
(Sawatdeenarunat et al., 2015). Algae farming using this effluent
not only offers nutrient recovery but also provides an algal biomass
for further diverse end applications such as producing biofuel (e.g.,
biodiesel and biomethane), animal feed, and high-value phyto-

chemicals among others. Phosphorus in the form of struvite can

be recovered from anaerobically digested animal manure and has
potential to serve as marketable organic fertilizer (Le Corre et al.,
2009). Such practice of recycling nutrients not only improves nutrient removal from wastewater but also benefits agricultural practices by reducing the requirements of costly chemical fertilizer.
Song et al. (2011) developed a struvite crystalization process which
eliminated the need for external chemical addition which could
significantly reduce the operating cost of the struvite production
system.
2.4. Food wastes
Food waste generation occurs throughout the supply chain from
initial agricultural production to final household consumption. In
2011, a study by the FAO estimated that approximately one-third
of all food produced for human consumption worldwide is discarded as waste; representing about 1.3 billion metric tons waste
per year (Gustavsson et al., 2011). This is equivalent to direct economic loss of nearly $750 billion annually. In Europe and North
America, an average of 95115 kg of food waste is generated per
person per year. There are several reasons for such a large generation of food wastes. For example, at the production level, farmer
buyer sales agreements result in farm crops being wasted due to
quality standards lacking perfect shape or appearance. At the consumer level, insufficient purchase planning, residual, uneaten, food
components; and last but not least, the careless attitude of the consumers. The general characteristics of the selected food wastes are
summarized in the Table 5. Currently employed methods for food
wastes management include animal feeding, direct disposal into
landfills, incineration, gasification, composting and AD.
Landfilling of food wastes poses several concerns such as high
land cost, GHGs emissions, and leachate generation among others.
Incineration has high capital and operation costs, and there is also
a serious concern of fugitive gas emissions (Arancon et al., 2013).
Gasification has the advantage of being able to handle a wide variety of feedstocks, but much drier feedstocks are required, and biomass variability may yield inconsistent output with low
thermodynamic efficiency. Composting is a low-cost method of
converting food wastes into biofertilizer. However, compost is a
very low-value product with significant emissions of GHG especially N2O and CO2 released during the composting process.
The high organic content and moisture levels make food waste an
ideal substrate for AD. Except for the waste from meat processing
plants, food waste in general are low in nitrogen content and the

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Table 5
The general characteristics of the selected food wastes.

Source

Country

TS (%)

VS (% TS)

Soluble
CODa (g/L)

Total
carbohydrate (% TS)

Total
protein (% TS)

Total
fat (% TS)

TKN
(gN/L)

References

Dining hall
Biowaste digestion plant
Fruit and vegetable markets,
household, and juices centers
University canteen

S. Korea
UK
India

67.8
24.8
15.0

94.0
92.9
88.5

NA
98.2
NA

37.6
NA
NA

NA
NA
6.87

NA
NA
8.5

NA
7.4
1.1

Shin et al. (2004)

Tampio et al. (2014)
Rao and Singh (2004)

China

19.7

17.0

NA

NA

17.3

29.9

NA

Qiao et al. (2011)

COD: chemical oxygen demand.

co-digestion of such food waste with nitrogen-rich substrates such

as sewage sludge and animal manure can significantly improve
the AD efficiency of food wastes (Zhou et al., 2013). Although AD is
currently the best available technology for food waste-tobioenergy production (Khanal, 2008), conventional AD generates a
single relatively low-value output (biogas). The anaerobic biorefinery approach provides significant merits to generate more diverse
value-added products from food wastes in addition to biogas.
3. Large-scale anaerobic biorefinery
The anaerobic biorefinery is a promising concept, in which the
anaerobic reactor/digester acts as a centerpiece for bioconversion
of feedstocks (substrates) into diverse high-value products and
intermediates. AD technology has several inherent merits such as
remediation of highly putrescible organic wastes at a smaller environmental footprint, capturing GHGs, and at the same time valorizing organic wastes into high-value products/chemicals and
intermediates. Diverse organic materials ranging from industrial

wastewaters to municipal and farm wastes could be used as feedstocks in an anaerobic biorefinery to produce biogas with concomitant generation of digestate (i.e., solid residue and liquid effluent).
The digestate could be further processed to plethora of biobased
products and chemicals. The anaerobic biorefinery concept is illustrated in Fig. 1. Bozell and Petersen presented a revised list of top
ten building block chemicals which can be derived from lignocellulosic biomass, including ethanol, furans, glycerol and derivatives,
hydrocarbons, lactic acid, succinic acid, hydroxypropionic acid/
aldehyde, levulinic acid, sorbitol, and xylotol (Bozell and
Petersen, 2010). Details of derivatives from these platform chemicals and their production pathways are found elsewhere (Choi
et al., 2015). Combinations of biochemical and thermochemical
technologies have been adopted for the conversion of biomass to
building block chemicals, biofuels, biomaterials, animal feed, and
fertilizer.
The potential resource recovery through AD from three output
sources (i.e., biogas, digestate, and liquid effluent) is discussed in
following section.

Fig. 1. Schematic of large-scale anaerobic biorefinery for producing biofuels and biobased products.

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3.1. Biogas
Biogas is the prime product of AD. On one hand, AD helps
reduce the volume of organic wastes with a small environmental
footprint and energy consumption; and on the other hand, GHGs,
especially CH4 are effectively captured and utilized.
Individual or combinations of various types of organic wastes
could be used as a feedstock for AD. Besides energy crops, wastes
that need to be managed (e.g., waste activated sludge, MSW, food
waste, agricultural and food processing wastes/wastewater, animal
manure etc.), residues from biofuel processing industries also have
high potential as an AD feedstock. For instance, residues of
bioethanol distillation from sugarcane and corn, known as stillage
and vinasse, respectively, have high potential to be used as AD
feedstocks. However, stillage and vinasse are rich in carbon content, requiring the addition of nutrients to optimize the carbon to
nitrogen (C/N) ratio. In practice, co-digestion with nutrient-rich
feedstocks like cattle manure to adjust C/N ratio to 2030:1 have
been widely applied (Khanal, 2008). Other operational parameters
such as pH, total volatiles fatty acids to total alkalinity (VFA/ALK)
ratio, ammonia, etc., should also be maintained within the recommended range for efficient digestion. The potential methane yields
from various organic feedstocks can be found in Table 3 and
Sawatdeenarunat et al. (2015). Utilization of the produced biogas
has been commercialized in a wide range of applications. The most
common industrial-scaled application is heat and electricity generation using a combined heat and power (CHP) unit. Electrical and
thermal conversion efficiencies of CHP unit are around 40% and
50%, respectively (Pschl et al., 2010). In case of anaerobic digester
fed with sulfur-rich substrate, the presence of hydrogen sulfide
(H2S) in the biogas at a concentration higher than 250 ppm could
be detrimental to the CHP unit. Thus, the H2S in biogas has to be
removed to a value below 250 ppm prior to feeding to the CHP
engine. Various methods for H2S removal, such as pressure swing
adsorption (PSA), water pressure absorption, ferric oxide adsorption, alkaline absorption, biological filtration, and micro-aeration
have been studied and commercialized. Besides H2S, biogas impurities such as CO2, ammonia, moisture, and particulates can be
removed to obtain CH4 content greater than 95% in a process called
biogas cleaning and upgrading. PSA, absorption by scrubbing,
membranes, and cryogenic separation have been applied for biogas
upgrading process at commercial-scale plants. Upgraded biomethane could be used as transportation fuel in the form of compressed natural gas (CNG) or liquid natural gas (LNG) or injected
into a natural gas grid. More details on biogas production and utilization can be found in Budzianowski (2016).
Apart from using biogas as a renewable energy resource for heat
and electricity generation as discussed above, biogas could be converted to methanol, which is a building block of many high-value
industrial chemicals including anhydride, ethylene, polyols and
other aromatic compounds (Ruchle et al., 2016). This concept of
low-volume, high-value conversion pathway for biogas or syngas
(H2 + CO) to liquid fuels and chemicals through chemical and biological conversions has gained significant interest in recent years
(Munasinghe and Khanal, 2011). Overall, biogas production from
organic wastes is an intrinsic merit of AD technology. However,
adapting biorefinery concepts into the utilization of biogas could
open up ideas for research and development in conversion pathways for a variety of higher-value biogas derivatives.
3.2. Digestate
The effluent (digestate) from an anaerobic digester can be separated into liquid and solid streams. The solid stream primarily
consists of suspended solids and undigested residues. Depending
on substrate type and operating condition of the digester, the com-

position of solid residue varies. This solid residue could serve as a

substrate for producing a wide variety of high-value biobased
products via biorefinery concept. In the following sections,
resource recovery from different components of AD residue (e.g.,
carbohydrates, lignin, fat, and protein) is discussed.
3.2.1. Carbohydrates
Feedstock rich in carbohydrates include lignocellulosic biomass
such as energy crops, maize and grass sillages and agri-residues.
Depending on sources, lignocellulosic biomass consists of 3056%
cellulose and 1027% hemicellulose (collectively known as holocellulose), and 330% lignin (dry wt. basis); the biomass also contains small amount of extractives, and ash (Cheng et al., 2011). AD
can effectively breakdown hemicellulose due to its amorphous
structure. The removal of hemicellulose during AD opens-up lignocellulosic matrix structure that enhances the further breakdown of
the cellulose component of biomass (Mathews et al., 2015). Such
findings have stimulated the idea of using AD as a biological pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass, allowing more efficient
downstream enzymatic saccharification of carbohydrates into sugars. Sugars released from enzyme hydrolysis in the form of glucose,
mannose, galactose, xylose, and arabinose are ideal substrates for
producing different alcohols, organic acids, and a wide range of
biochemicals and biobased products (Surendra et al., 2015).
Bioethanol fermentation by yeast or Zymomonas and biobutanol
production by Clostridium spp. has been extensively studied. Yeast,
Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been widely employed for bioethanol
production with the ethanol yield of 0.4 g/g glucose and 0.3 g/g lignocellulosic biomass (Nanda et al., 2014). Recently, research efforts
have been shifted towards optimization of butanol production due
to its higher value as a fuel and chemical. Clostridium species have
been reported to produce 0.23 g butanol/g glucose and 0.25 g butanol/g xylose (Bramono et al., 2011). Other genetically engineered
microorganisms, such as Escherichia coli have also been reported
to effectively produce a variety of alcohols. Recently, diol (i.e., a
chemical with two AOH functional groups) production from lignocellulosic biomass has gained great interest compared to conventional alcohol due to their higher market value. Propanediols and
butanediols are platform chemicals for producing many industrial
products including solvents, adhesives, resins, and detergents
(Zeng and Sabra, 2011). Sugars could also be converted to shortchain volatile fatty acids (i.e., acetic, propionic, butyric, and valeric
acids) through the carboxylic acid pathway by using fermentative
microorganisms. These carboxylic acids are precursors for various
valuable derivative chemicals such as diols, esters, and anhydrides.
The microbial fermentation of diacids (i.e., succinic, fumaric, and
malic acids), which are listed among the top ten platform chemicals by U.S. DOE, has been studied extensively (Bozell and
Petersen, 2010). The co-production of bioethanol and succinic acid
from hemp (Cannabis sativa L.), a second-generation energy crop,
has been reported to yield 149 kg and 115 kg per dry metric ton
of biomass, respectively (Kuglarz et al., 2016). Succinic acid, with
a global market demand of up to 50,000 metric ton/year, could be
used as platform chemical to produce high-value products such
as 1,4-butanediol, tetrahydrofuran, and biopolymers (Jansen and
van Gulik, 2014). In addition, lactic acid is also considered a building block chemical for poly-lactic acid, acrylic acids, and propanediol through polymerization, dehydration, and hydrogenation,
respectively (Bozell and Petersen, 2010). Details of biomassderived selected platform chemicals with their derivatives and
applications are summarized in Table 6.
Besides alcohol or acid fermentation pathways, dehydration of
sugars to produce furans has been studied as an alternative conversion route. Dehydration of C5 and C6 sugars has been applied to
produce biomass-derived furfural and hydroxymethylfurfural
(HMF), respectively. Furans are platform chemicals to produce a

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Table 6
Bio-based platform chemicals and derivatives (adopted from Choi et al. (2015)).
Platform bio-based chemical

Market demand
(million metric tons/year)

Conversion pathway

Derivatives

Applications

Ethanol

86.0

Polymerization

Polyethylene (PE)
Polypropylene (PP)
Polyethylene terephthalate (PET)
Ethylene glycol

Fuels
Plastic industries

Oxidation

Furans (furfural,
hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF))

0.3

Glycerol

2.0

Polymerization
Oxidation

Plastic industries
Textile fibers
Antifreezes, coolant, solvents

Hydrogenation

Biopolymers
Fumaric acid
Furoic acid
Furandicarboxylic acid
Furfuryl alcohol

Plastic industries
Chemical industries

Hydrogenolysis
Oxidative dehydration

Diols (ethylene/propylene glycols)

Acrylic acid

Chemical industries
Plastic industries
Coating
Fuels (jet fuel, diesel, gasoline)

Chemical industries

Biohydrocarbon

NA

Lactic acid

0.4

Polymerization

Polylactic acid

Plastic industries

Succinic acid

0.05

Dehydration

Acrylic acid

Hydrogenation

Diol (propanediol, butanediol)

Butylolactone

Plastic industries
Coating
Chemical and plastic industries

Oxidation
Polymerization

Maleic acid
Fumaric acid
Polyester polyols

Dehydration

Acrylic acid

Hydroxypropionic acid

NA

Chemical industries
Adhesives
Coating
Plastic industries
Coating

Levunic acid

NA

Hydrogenation

y-Valerolactone

Fuel additives

Sorbitol

1.7

Oxidation

Chemical industries

Hydrogenolysis

Succinic acid
Acetyl acrylic acid
Diols (ethylene/propylene glycols)

Hydrogenolysis

Diols (ethylene/propylene glycols)

Chemical industries

Xylitol

0.1

wide-range of chemicals, such as levulinic acids, furfural alcohol,

and biopolymers (Bozell and Petersen, 2010).
Instead of going through enzymatic saccharification, an alternative pathway for utilizing the cellulose present in digestate fiber is
to purify the cellulose by a delignification process. There is a wide
range of derivatives from cellulose, such as polypropylenemicro
crystalline cellulose composite, cellulose esters, and cellulose
ethers, which have many industrial applications. For example, cellulose esters like cellulose acetate and cellulose nitrate have been
widely commercialized in producing membrane filters for water
treatment, food production, and medical supplies (Klemm et al.,
2005).
3.2.2. Lignin
The lignin content of lignocellulosic biomass varies from 10
35% of dry weight, depending on the plant species (Mathews
et al., 2015). Lignin, a major component of digested fiber following
AD and saccharification processes, has a high potential for biorefinery applications. However, technological challenges have hindered
lignin biorefinery applications due to the intrinsic recalcitrant
structure of this phenolic macromolecule. Lignin has potential
applications in producing heat and electricity, syngas, fuels (e.g.,
methanol, dimethyl ether, and FischerTropsch fuels), vanillin,
and dimethyl sulfoxide. Thermochemical processes such as combustion, gasification, and pyrolysis are commonly used for lignin
conversion (Bozell et al., 2007). Besides the thermochemical pathway, a potential future technology for utilizing waste lignin uses an
opposite approach, which aims to keep the polymerized structure
of lignin intact instead of breaking it down to its monomers. Technological advancements to purify lignin for carbon fibers and

Chemical industries

biopolymers (e.g., bioplastic, resins and adhesives) pose a potentially very interesting opportunity for a lignin biorefinery.
Bozell et al. (2007) reported a technology for lignin utilization
which produces aromatic compounds, including phenols,
benzenetoluenexylene (BTX) and lignin monomers through
catalysis and selective oxidation processes. Although the demands
for such products are high, lack of technical experience and high
energy costs have hindered the commercialization of ligninbased high-value chemicals production.
3.2.3. Solid residues
Besides the lignin utilization via thermo-chemical processes,
the whole solid fibers after the solidliquid separation of the digestate could be used for the production of bio-oil and biochar via
pyrolysis. Bio-oil can also be produced by hydrous pyrolysis in
which thermal decomposition takes place in the presence of water
known as hydrothermal treatment. Biochar is mainly used as a soil
conditioner, which has been found to be effective in carbon sequestration thereby reducing net carbon dioxide emissions. There is an
economic tradeoff between bio-oil and biochar production which
depends on the market price for the product and the type of pyrolysis method used (Pandey et al., 2015).
3.3. Liquid effluent
Ammonium and phosphates are the major nutrients present in
the liquid effluent from AD process. As mentioned earlier, the traditional practice of applying the liquid effluents as ferti-irrigation
has environmental issues when applied in excess, and thus land
application of the liquid effluent must be carefully regulated.

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Recently, algae farming using such nutrient-rich effluents has

gained significant interest as an efficient approach for nutrient
recovery (Van Den Hende et al., 2015). An algae farm using such
a nutrient source not only offers nutrient recovery from the effluent, but also provides algal biomass for diverse applications such as
biofuel production (e.g., biodiesel, biomethane, and biohydrogen),
animal feed, nutraceuticals, and high-value phytochemicals among
others. Microalgae (Chlorella spp.) are being widely adopted for this
process due to their high nutrient (nitrogen and phosphorus)
removal efficiencies (Yan and Zheng, 2013). Algal biomass usually
is rich in lipid and protein contents with values as high as 75% and
60% of TS, respectively (Spolaore et al., 2006). Lipid from algal biomass could be extracted and used for producing biodiesel and glycerol as by-products. The protein-rich solid residue after lipid
extraction could be used in animal feed application or as a cosubstrate for AD (Park and Li, 2012). The effluent following algal
biomass separation could be recycled back as process water in
AD plants or used for irrigation with less risk of ground and surface
water contamination. Furthermore, nutrient-rich effluent from AD
process could potentially be used to produce struvite (MgNH4PO4),
an orthophosphate crystalline material with potential application
as a slow release biofertilizer. Struvite formation takes place when
the ratio of Mg:NH4:PO4 is greater than 1:1:1 on a molar basis and
pH is high (Jaffer et al., 2002; Le Corre et al., 2009). Uysal et al.
(2010) determined the fertilizer quality of struvite produced using
effluent from anaerobic digester treating sewage sludge. The
authors reported that the precipitated struvite at Mg:N:P molar
ratio of 1.5:1:1 met the regulations for heavy metal limits for fertilizers. Several studies (Shu et al., 2006; Jaffer et al., 2002)
reported the technical and economic feasibility of recovering nutrients via struvite precipitation from wastewater treatment plants.
Effluents from the AD plants treating nutrient-rich waste streams
such as swine and poultry manure could be an ideal substrate for
recovering nutrients via struvite precipitation.

4. Small-scale anaerobic biorefinery

There is a huge potential for smaller household digesters in
developing countries to utilize the locally available bioresources
such as animal manures and crop-residues for biogas production.
The rural areas in such countries largely depend on traditional biomass such as firewood, crop residues, and animal dung for cooking.
Biogas technology has been introduced primarily to provide a clean
energy for cooking and lighting to rural households and to curtail
deforestation. The residuals after digestion, commonly known as
bioslurry, serve as a fertilizer for crop production and a fish feed
for aquaculture application. China has by far the largest number
of household biodigester with over 30 million operational plants
as of 2012, and is expected to reach 80 million by 2020
(Rajendran et al., 2012). India has approximately 4.75 million biogas plants (Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, 2014) and
Vietnam installed more than 115,000 units between 2003 and
2011 through the combined effort of Ministry of Agriculture and
Rural Development, SNV and the Dutch Government (SNV Netherlands Development Organization Vietnam, 2012). Other developing countries such as Cambodia, Laos, and Indonesia are
gradually extending their biogas programs. For example, the Royal
Cambodian Government has implemented a nation-wide initiative
to deploy biodigester technology and has built over
23,304 household/farm-scale digesters as of July 2015 in 15 provinces. The government plans to expand to more than 1.0 million
biodigesters in all 24 provinces. Similarly, Nepal has over
250,000 household biogas plants distributed nationwide
(Surendra et al., 2014). Anaerobic biorefinery concepts have been
well received by rural households who have biogas digesters. Bio-

gas technology produces two valuable products biogas as source

of cooking gas and digestate (or bioslurry) as a source of fish feed
and organic fertilizer. Ali et al. (2008) concluded that manure
slurry from biodigesters can be safely used as a fish feed and
reported an increase in fish production by 2030%. Nguyen and
Fricke (2015) showed that the digester effluent from co-digestion
of pig manure and spent mushroom substrate in Vietnam was suitable for application as feed for Tilapia in addition to vegetable gardening. The fish growth rate in the treatments supplied with 50%
digester effluent and 50% commercial feed (CF) was not significantly different from the growth rate of fish provided with 100%
CF. Similar research findings have also been reported in China, Bangladesh, and Thailand. In Cambodia, farmers are using bioslurry for
aquaculture applications. Suthar (2010) showed that the dried
slurry from manure-based biodigester could also be used as vermibeds, which is finally used to make vermicompost. Moreover,
the use of bioslurry as a organic fertilizer for rice and horticulture
crop production is being widely promoted in Cambodia. Several
studies reported the use of bioslurry as a fertilizer in upland
(Alburquerque et al., 2012; Smith et al., 2014, 2015) and flooded
(Nishikawa et al., 2012) rice systems. These practices help reduce
the agrarian costs of local farmers and mitigate environmental
impacts at the same time. The local community in the developing
countries should be made aware of and encouraged to explore different avenues in which the AD effluent can be utilized. Proper
awareness and knowledge concerning the operation and maintenance of digesters, the usefulness of local bioresources for biogas
production, increases in financial subsidies for the installation of
biogas plants, and improved designs which deliver lower cost,
improved robustness and functionality, ease of construction, operation, and maintenance would aid the development of small-scale
anaerobic biorefinery in developing countries.
5. Challenges and prospectives
The biorefinery concept has taken its shape in the last decade,
but has many miles to go before an established system can prosper.
Some of the future directions for anaerobic biorefineries could be
the integration of different biorefinery platforms where the wastes
from these platforms are to be used for the producing biogas. The
produced biogas can be used for on-site energy requirements or
fed to the grid, if in excess. The problem with current AD systems
is that they are perceived only as a method of reducing organic
waste and producing energy. However, with the current fluctuation in energy prices, other sources of revenue, generated from
the residual bioslurry should be exploited. Currently, greater focus
is required to maintain the more consistent nutrient levels. Certifications programs for the bioslurry could also encourage the customer to buy the product as a fertilizer. Other targets include
insuring that the valuable chemicals, amino acids, etc. are recovered in the biorefinery before the feedstock is sent to the AD process. Nutrients and potentially valuable chemicals can be
recovered from food production and processing industries, before
final treatment of the food processing waste through AD technology (Pandey et al., 2015). There is also a need to conduct a comprehensive techno-economic analysis of anaerobic biorefinery by
considering the local conditions.
6. Conclusion
This paper describes the anaerobic biorefinery possibilities. So
far, the default product of AD is mainly biogas. However, the anaerobic biorefinery approach to produce high-value products could
enhance the economic viability of biofuels and biobased products.
The anaerobic biorefinery concepts in large-scale and small-scale

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C. Sawatdeenarunat et al. / Bioresource Technology xxx (2016) xxxxxx

are briefly described showing the current scenario. The transfer of

these technologies from the laboratory to industries or on-field
applications does appear very positive for a more sustainable
future for our earth. We must build a more robust integration of
these technologies and their economics for these changes to
prosper.

Acknowledgements
This project is being supported by funding from the Sun Grant
Western Regional Center at Oregon State University through a
grant provided by the United States Department of Transportation
(Sub-award # TO013G-J).

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Please cite this article in press as: Sawatdeenarunat, C., et al. Anaerobic biorefinery: Current status, challenges, and opportunities. Bioresour. Technol.
(2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2016.03.074