Integrating the new age of bioeconomy and Industry 4.0 into biorefinery process design

Abstract

Manufacturing processes and their economy are dramatically evolving due to machinery and digital control improvements. Artificial intelligence, big data analytics, and the Internet of Things are key tools for this new industrial revolution era based on Industry 4.0. Bioeconomy and circular economy concepts have appeared in the forest, agriculture, food, pharmaceutical, pulp and paper, chemical, biotechnological, and energy areas, etc., to achieve sustainable economic growth development via biomass valorization in a biorefinery platform. Biorefinery process development at an industrial scale requires the previous design and assessment of processes and technologies. Therefore, economic, environmental, and social factors should be evaluated to prevent the failure in one of these issues that could affect the performance of the others. With a growing interest in sustainable economic development, there is a need to incorporate new technologies early enough in the process design. This study aims to better understand how Industry 4.0 era tools can bring new solutions to the biorefinery process design, in terms of the technical, economic, environmental, and social factors. Thus, these tools could improve and revolutionize the process selection optimization, provide alternatives for biomass valorization, integration strategies, and the metrics selection for process evaluation, adding the approach toward sustainable economic development.