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A Biorefinery approach towards development of renewable platform chemicals 137

pretreatment process. Implementation of catalytic routes such as gasification, pyrol-
ysis, and hydrolysis has emerged to be successful due to its continuous monitoring.
The key factors addressed at industrial scale are the compatibility of industrial
infrastructure and the optimization of downstream process for the production of sus-
tainable chemicals from biomass (Hatti-Kaul et al., 2007; Lee et al., 2011a,b). The
advancement in bio-based chemicals outsources a large fraction than the chemical
industry with many challenges. The main objectives of bio-based chemical indus-
tries are to utilize versatile feedstock supply for the production of products with
superior properties (Vennestrøm et al., 2011).

6.3 Contemporary approach toward biorefinery and its
processing strategies

6.3.1 Biorefinery approach toward production of
bulk chemicals

The recent trend in bio-based chemical products is the application of biorefinery
concept. It mainly works by the integration of various biomass feedstocks through a
combination of different technologies. This approach utilizes hybrid technology by
coupling bioengineering and process chemistry. The biorefinery approaches include
two major categories: selection of source and treatment of the selected materials.
The biomass components are subjected to biological and chemical treatments. The
outputs from this step were further converted to chemical building blocks that are
used for production of commodity chemicals. The presence of complex structures
in biomass requires an additional step known as aqueous-phase processing prior to
the production of chemicals (Huber and Dumesic, 2006). The large-scale biorefin-
ery process involving lignocellulosic feedstocks utilizes the concept of fractional
biomass to produce economically feasible chemicals. The large-scale production
and its implications in biorefinery plant mainly depend on feedstock and final pro-
ducts (Mabee et al., 2005).
Process intensification helps in obtaining sustainable chemical production
achieved mainly by established infrastructure and design. The engineering commu-
nity employing this process requires high-throughput creative techniques and stimu-
lation. This process is recommended for chemical production utilizing plants as a
source in its initial stage (Stankiewicz and Moulijn, 2000; Moulijn et al., 2008;
Keil, 2007). The conventional process design lists nearly nine units, whereas inten-
sification techniques utilize microreactors with seven units starting from fermenta-
tion to hydrogen separation. The main principle of this intensification is
distinguished as (1) increasing the effectiveness of intra and intermolecules, (2)
monitoring the processing of the molecules, (3) optimizing the driving forces and
surface area of the molecules, and (4) maximizing the synergies between subprocess
(Van Gerven and Stankiewicz, 2009). Identification of molecular structures plays a
major role in this process as they reduce the energy and equipment needed. This