Scaling Up Bioreactor Systems for Sustainable Biorefinery: A Crucial Step in Advancing the Green Economy

Worldwide industries are undergoing a vital shift from a fossil-based economy to a bio-based economy, owing to rising global energy demands and the adverse environmental repercussion accompanying with the use of fossil fuels. Biomass materials have intrigued enhanced research and industrial interest for producing a variety of renewable resources and high-value products. A biorefinery is an integral processing unit that can receive profuse biomass material feedstock and permute them into wide realm of utilitarian products including chemicals, energy, and materials. Large-scale application of biorefinery system can be achieved through the design and development of a suitable bioreactor system. Furthermore, bioreactor scale-up from the laboratory scale to the industrial scale comprises the development of bioprocess in bench, pilot, and industrial scales. As of now, the barriers such as the complex nature of biomass feedstock and productivity perplexities of transformation processes at the initial deployment stages put challenges for scaling-up. This chapter reviews the concept of a bioreactor system, its types, design, development and scale-up for biorefinery, present developments, associated technical challenges, and future outlooks.