Bio-based industry and biorefineries

The EU bio-based industry is quickly evolving but clear data on the development of this emerging sector are still missing. In particular, bio-based chemicals and materials are innovative, high value-added products contributing to the transition to a more sustainable European manufacturing sector.

The JRC has built an extensive database of EU facilities producing different categories of bio-based products:

- bio-based chemicals
- liquid biofuels
- bio-based composites and fibres
- pulp and paper
- biomethane
- starch, sugar and derived products
- timber (sawmills)

The database is accompanied by this online interactive dashboard implemented in the EC Data portal of agro-economics Modelling (DataM) and in the EC Knowledge Centre for Bioeconomy.

The dashboard consists of 3 tabs. The first one provides an overview of the bio-based plants in the EU, and presents them according to geographical location, feedstock used and resultant products. The second tab offers additional information about the chemical and material biorefineries in the EU, including the transformation processes and platforms used. On the third tab, the user can find a comparison between the chemical and material biorefineries in the EU and selected facilities outside of the EU.

When exploring dashboard, the user is invited to apply the available filters to discover the EU bio-based sector. An additional filter is also provided to identify EU biorefineries, according to the user’s preferred definition of them: facilities producing multiple bio-based products, multiple bio-based product categories, or integrating the production of bio-based products and energy.

User feedback is very welcome through the mailbox [e-mail] to update and improve the dashboard and the dataset behind.