The recent achievements in the field of biorefineries have been reviewed, highlighting commercial solutions of the II and III generation biorefinery. At current oil prices, biofuels produced either from waste biomass or from algae are not competitive both economically and from the point of view of LCA of bioproducts. These advanced biorefining technologies can be used in the future for biofuels production, while currently microalgaes are profitable in producing other valuable bioproducts such as proteins, pharmaceuticals, dyes, etc. Further development of biorefineries requires not only interdisciplinary but also inter-sectoral cooperation and full integration of biorefineries with oil refineries.

The aim of the study was to determine surface properties of perfluorodecalin–water system supplemented with surface active polymer Pluronic F-68 which has been dissolved in the aqueous phase at 37°C. Surface tensions were measured by the du Noüy ring method for polymer concentration ranged from 0.00012 up to 0.12 mM. Analogous measurements were performed for air–water system. Surface properties, i.e. the critical micelle concentration (CMC) and the standard free energy of micellization (ΔG⁰_mic) for both studied two – phase systems were determined. Due to the fact that Pluronic F-68 is insoluble in perfluorodecalin, as well as perfluorodecalin does not dissolve in the aqueous phase, both obtained CMC values were similar. Calculated values of ΔG⁰_mic indicated that formation of micelles was spontaneous for polymer concentrations higher than CMC.

Pre-treatment is one of the most important stages in the production of valuable bioproducts from lignocellulosic feedstock. It aims to destroy the complex structure of raw materials, what contributes to increase their susceptibility to enzymatic saccharification. For each type of used raw materials, it is necessary to verify the applicability of the selected pre-treatment method and process parameters. In the present work the effectiveness of pre-treatments carried out in 2% H2SO4 and 2% NaOH at various process conditions, for three lignocellulosic raw materials: (i) corn stover, (ii) corn cob, and (iii) fast-growing poplar wood, were compared. As a measure of the process efficiency, the overall yields of monosaccharides release from biomass were determined based on the amounts of glucose and xylose dissolved in the solutions used for pre-treatment as well as on the their amounts produced during enzymatic hydrolysis of solid fraction of biomass obtained after pre-treatment.

The cometabolic biodegradation of 4-chlorophenol by Stenotrophomas maltophilia KB2 strain in the presence of phenol as the growth substrate was studied. First, the ability of KB2 strain to biodegrade phenol as the only source of carbon and energy was tested for different initial concentrations of phenol changed in the range of 25–500 g·m-3. Haldane’s growth kinetic model was found to be the best to fit the experimental data so constants of the kinetic equation as well as the biomass yield coefficient were estimated (µ_m = 0,9h^-1, Ks = 48,97 g·m^-3, K = 256,12 g·m^-3, Y_x/s = 0,5715 g_x, g_g^-1). Next, a series of tests were carried out in dual-substrate system changing in a wide range the initial concentrations of phenol (50–300 g·m^-3) and 4-CP (25–100 g·m^-3); (S_g/S_c = 1–6). Total biodegradation was achieved for the whole range of changes of concentrations of both substrates and biodegradation time did not exceed 6 hours. The values of growth substrate transformation yield (T_c^g) and the (f) term, which means the fraction of reductant generated by phenol oxidation for 4-CP transformation were also estimated. The experimental database will be used to verify the mathematical model of the process.

The behavior of non-isothermal fixed-bed reactor performing hydrogen peroxide decomposition by immobilized Terminox Ultra catalase attached onto the outer surface of glass beads was studied. A dispersion model for bioreactor formulated in this work took into account the coupled mass and heat balances as well as the rate equation for enzyme parallel deactivation. Model under consideration was based on kinetic, hydrodynamic and mass transfer parameters previously obtained in the H₂O₂ decomposition. The effect of inlet hydrogen peroxide concentration, feed temperature and diffusional resistances were analysed. It was shown that in process under considerations the external diffusional resistances should not be ignored compared to internal one and global effectiveness factor should be employed. Furthermore, the optimal feed temperature was obtained that maximizes the average hydrogen peroxide conversion at bioreactor outlet.

The possibility of the treatment of secondary pollutants in the form of concentrates of organic components (mainly proteins) and nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus compounds) produced as a result of ultrafiltration of dairy wastewater was examined in this paper. Biological treatment using activated sludge was used to neutralize protein concentrates. This effectively reduced the content of both organic compounds as well as nitrogen and phosphorus in both dairy wastewater and retentate, which was concentrated twice in the ultrafiltration. However, the performance of activated sludge for the treatment of retentate concentrated four times in the ultrafiltration of dairy wastewater might be improved with bioaugmentation products.

The review summarizes information about CCU technologies state of the art. CO₂ to fuels or to chemicals conversion technologies are overviewed and sustainable CO₂ based chemicals are defined. Technology readiness level of present research and industrial levels in CCU are discussed. Demands for scientist, industry and policy to reach CO₂ based products sustainable are defined.

The study evaluated possibilities of using sorghum biomass as a substrate for production of methane in agricultural biogas plants. Five different sorghum varieties, cultivated at two different localisations: Straszków and Śmiłów were analysed. The analysis of biochemical methane potential (BMP) indicated that in both localisations the best results were achieved in the case of Sucrosorgo variety of sorghum. Yield of methane from hectare was 8586 m³ ha^-1 year^-1 in location Straszków, and 7859 m³ ha^-1 year^-1 in location Śmiłów. The lowest yield from hectare and the lowest efficiency of methane from hectare in both locations were registered for the Akklimat variety (2320 m³ ha^-1 year^-1) and Nutri Honey (2762 m³ ha^-1 year^-1). The comparative analysis of the ERoEI index proved that the Sucrosorgo variety is definitely the most effective (8.71 at the Straszków location and 7.97 at the Śmiłów location) from the others in terms of energy efficiency. The energy efficiency of this variety is nearly four times higher than the least effective (Akklimat – 2.34).