Revamping conventional refinery to biorefinery

The growing social interest in energy and environmental problems is generating the search for new energy sources that contribute to the electrical, thermal and transport demands required by the current and future population. An option to fossil fuels is biomass; exploited for its abundance, maintainability and caloric characteristics, capable of generating bioenergetic products (heat, electricity, biofuels) in a sustainable way. However, for its use to be widespread, it is necessary to have fácilities that allow the transformation of biomass into useful products, making it necessary to adapt conventional refineries to biorefineries. Through the search, storage, treatment and analysis of document data, both in patents and in scientific papers, for the period 2013 -- 2019, the main requirements for conversion of a refinery to biorefinery were identified, which include from the change of raw material from petroleum to biomass, processes biological and adaptation or reuse of equipment such as tanks, distillation or desulfurization units as the axis of change.