Nature-inspired Bio-Mineral Refinery for Simultaneous Biofuel Feedstock production and CO2 mineralization

Abstract

Inspired by Nature, we propose that synergies between biorefinery and mineral refinery can be exploited so that at least a part of the carbon is captured before being released to the atmosphere. In doing so, carbon is captured not only from CO2 but also from biomass and developing more such processes may be the cornerstone for controlling CO2 emissions. A comparison of circular economy in traditional biorefineries and bio-mineral refineries is done by using general chemical formulas and it is shown that the bio-mineral refinery captures carbon. In this work, we have shown that Serpentine may be used to partially neutralise biomass pyrolysis oil. The extracted oil may be used as feedstock to produce downstream chemicals and further studies are required to produce the same.