6 - A Biorefinery approach towards development of renewable platform chemicals from sustainable biomass

Abstract

In recent years, the requirement of sustainability has gained significant attention due to the depletion of fossil resources and uncertainty caused by various environmental problems including climate change. The global concerns in attaining sustainable environment are highlighted constantly on considering the issues that are faced by the conventional petroleum products. The ambiguous availability of fossil fuels and hike in the petroleum products have led to a demand for the amplification of alternative chemical patterns from renewable sources. The use of lignocellulosic biomass has augmented critical importance as they hold enormous potential for the production of platform chemicals. The biomass for the production of platform chemicals pays expedient way for the development of biorefinery complexes. The emerging biorefinery concept along with integration of green chemistry and implementation of low environmental impact technologies raise the necessity of sustainable chains of high value–added platform chemicals. This review identifies the key implications of the production of bulk chemicals and also gives an outline on the architecture of bio-based chemicals. The review also emphasizes the importance of lignocellulosic biomass and the strategies involved during the production of bulk chemicals. A materialistic approach on the production of various platform chemicals and the assessment are deliberated in this paper to identify an effective way to enhance the performance of platform chemicals with high oxygen content as identified in the original biomass composition.