Creating greater value for biomass residues

Dissertation presented to obtain the Ph.D degree in Engineering Sciences and Technology

Renewable resources have been the focus of both the scientific and industrial communities as substitutes for fossil fuels. Numerous studies have addressed the conversion of biomass to value-added chemicals, to materials, to fuels and into power and/or heat, i.e. biorefinery. The main goal of this thesis is to develop alternative extraction processes to isolate value-added constituents from biomass residues. Cork and birch outer bark were selected since the corresponding processing industries generate significant amounts of residues with high contents of value-added compounds, namely suberin (structural component) and triterpenes (extractable components).(...)