AUTHOR=Torres Andres F. , Xu Xuan , Nikiforidis Constantinos V. , Bitter Johannes H. , Trindade Luisa M. TITLE=Exploring the Treasure of Plant Molecules With Integrated Biorefineries JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science VOLUME=10 YEAR=2019 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2019.00478 DOI=10.3389/fpls.2019.00478 ISSN=1664-462X ABSTRACT=
Despite significant progress toward the commercialization of biobased products, today’s biorefineries are far from achieving their intended goal of total biomass valorization and effective product diversification. The problem is conceptual. Modern biorefineries were built around well-optimized, cost-effective chemical synthesis routes, like those used in petroleum refineries for the synthesis of fuels, plastics, and solvents. However, these were designed for the conversion of fossil resources and are far from optimal for the processing of biomass, which has unique chemical characteristics. Accordingly, existing biomass commodities were never intended for modern biorefineries as they were bred to meet the needs of conventional agriculture. In this