Upon successful completion of the course, the student should:

• Understand the basic concepts and principles of biorefinery and the circular economy.
• Have understood the most important technologies of production of separation, recovery of useful materials from wastewater, production of biofuels 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation.
• Be sufficiently familiar with the comparative advantages of each technology and its applications on a case-by-case basis.
• Have been trained in performing technical calculations necessary for the sizing and design of biorefinery
• Have understood the basic concepts of environmental technical and economic parameters by comparing costs and performance.

The skills that the student is expected to develop upon successful completion of the course are:

• Ability to interpret the basic principles of biorefinery and circular economy.
• Ability to carry out dimensioning and design of biorefinery systems and circular economy.
• Ability to perform technical calculations.
• Ability to review environmental, technical and economic parameters in biorefinery and circular economy.

• Review, analysis and synthesis of data and information, with the use of necessary technologies
• Work in interdisciplinary environment
• Environmental protection

1. Introduction to Biorefineries and to integrated biomass management. Examples of 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation Biorefineries.
2. Separation processes used in Biorefineries. Introduction to the most important separation processes used in Biorefineries: Extraction, adsorption, floatation, ion exchange, distillation, membrane separation.
3. Forest Biorefineries. Management of woody biomass, production of high added value products.
4. Olives tree biorefinery.
5. Recovery of heavy metals from industrial and municipal wastewaters.
6. Sustainable Recovery of Energy from Waste in a Recycling Society. Optimization of Waste Management in Sustainable Resource Recovery (energy and materials)-Environmental Sustainability of Thermal Treatments.
7. Liquid biofuels - Biodiesel. Energy crops. Agro-industrial complex to liquid biofuels. Various energy sources.
8. Transformation processes to biodiesel. Homogeneous-Heterogeneous- Enzymatic catalysis. Other production processes.
9. Bioethanol production.
10. Environmental assessment of biofuels.
11. 2nd generation biofuels. Raw material to bioethanol.
12. Biofuels Life Cycle Assessment.
13. 3rd generation biofuel

Use of Information and Communication Technology

• Power point presentations
• E-class support

Assessment Method

Ι. Written final examination (70%): 
-Questions of theoretical knowledge.
- Problems to be resolved.

•  J. Sadhukhan, K.S. Ng and E. Martinez Hernandez, 2014, Biorefineries and Chemical Processes: Design, Integration and Sustainability Analysis, 1^st Edition, Wiley.
• S. Ramaswamy, H.-J. Huang and B.V. Ramarao, 2013, Separation and Purification Technologies in Biorefineries, 1^st Edition, Wiley.
• Gerhard Knothe and Jon Van Gerpen, “The Biodiesel Handbook”, end Edition, October 5, 2010, ISBN-13: 978-1893997622
• Θ. Τσούτσος και Ι. Κανάκης, «Ανανεώσιμες Πηγές Ενέργειας. Τεχνολογίες και Περιβάλλον», εκδόσεις Παπασωτηρίου, 2003 (in Greek)
• Selected papers from Scientific Journals