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Context and challenges

In the 2010s, the biorefinery concept was extended to include the use of waste biomass, and is now known as an environmental biorefinery. The aim is to combine the environmental benefits of a biorefinery as an alternative to a petroleum refinery with the benefits of exploiting waste bio-resources. Researchers have been assessing the possibility of smaller-scale biorefineries, particularly environmental biorefineries, for less than a decade. In the same vein, the idea of a truly urban and peri-urban environmental biorefinery, i.e. one that is designed to be integrated into the city or its surrounding area, is equally innovative. Shifting to this model would not only help improve the quality of the urban environment and lead to more efficient waste processing, but would also help citizens and local communities adapt to environmental, economic and social changes, and to seize the opportunities arising from these changes (new skills and know-how, modernisation and added value for industry, improved quality of life, etc.).

It is also a matter of constantly thinking about “tomorrow’s waste”, that is, designing systems that take into account the way waste is likely to change in terms of quantity and composition, leading to new trends in consumption. The challenge is to understand the interactions between how biomass is produced, processed, recovered and used in a whole system rather in sectors, and to grasp the dynamics of water, energy and land resources that underpin these activities.

The idea of a truly urban and peri-urban environmental biorefinery, that is, designed to be incorporated into cities or their surrounding area, is novel and has not yet been the subject of publications. 

Progress and results

Leadership of the REBUS consortium enabled the creation of an interdisciplinary network of researchers  aimed at catalysing forward-looking thinking on urban environmental biorefining by drawing on the thematic and disciplinary diversity of INRAE researchers. The main objective of the consortium was to create a shared understanding and to co-construct scientific projects, in other words, to 'sow the seeds' of interdisciplinary thinking about the urban environmental biorefinery among INRAE scientists. 

Contacts - Coordination :

INRAE and non-INRAE partners