Saccharide biomass for biofuels, biomaterials, and chemicals

Abstract

This chapter is a description of the main applications of saccharides in industry for obtaining energetic and nonenergetic products by means of the biorefinery concept allied to green chemistry principles. A biorefinery seeks to use the entire biomass completely, exploiting polysaccharides, proteins, and lignin in various manufacturing processes, to obtain food, pharmaceutical products, biomaterials, bioproducts, and biopolymers, in addition to energetic products, in a sustainable manner. After analyzing demand aspects, costs, transformation technology to be used, and possibilities for the molecule to be a source for many technological applications, the most promising saccharide applications are succinic acid, bioethanol, and 3-HP (3-hydroxypropionic acid).