Biorefineries for Renewable Monomers

The use of renewable resources as raw materials for technical applications is not at all new. Mankind has already used natural materials during early civilisations in order to meet their basic needs and the first industrial activities were also largely based on the use of renewable resources [1, 2]. This continued until the beginning of the industrial revolution. 

Biobased polymers or bioplastics, as they are often called, are chemical products made from monomers from plant-based resources. They either have petrochemical equivalents with the same chemical structure and properties against which they have to compete in the market, or can show different structures and performances versus traditional plastics. On a large scale, such biobased monomers are produced in so-called biorefineries. 

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