Lignocellulosics as a Renewable Feedstock for Chemical Industry: Chemical Hydrolysis and Pretreatment Processes

Abstract

Lignocellulosic materials, including agricultural, municipal, and forestry residues, and dedicated bio energy crops, offer significant potential as a renewable feedstock for the production of fuels and chemicals. These products can be chemically or functionally equivalent to existing products that are produced from fossil-fuel-based feed stocks. To unlock the potential of lignocellulosic materials, it is necessary to pretreat or fractionate the biomass to make it amenable to downstream processing. This chapter explores current and developing technologies for the pretreatment and fractionation of lignocellulosic biomass for the production of chemicals and fuels.