Pharmaceuticals biorefineries

In the future, biorefineries will process a variety of biomass-based feedstocks in order to produce new base chemicals for the production of many new and already existing bulk chemicals and polymers. White biotechnology will play an important role in this development, as it does already in the production of pharmaceuticals, fine chemicals and speciality chemicals. 

Because of the high demand of biofuels in the present situation, several biorefineries have been established based on the availability of agriculture and forest products and also in efforts to utilize wastes obtainable from the paper and pulp industry, sugar mills, etc. (Cherubini et al., 2009). This system yields transportation fuels such as biodiesel and bioethanol, platform chemicals, and some chemical intermediates for cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. Since the Phase III biorefineries are the ones that may be expected to serve as an all-in-one source of food, feed, and platform chemicals, the various known forms of Phase 111 biorefineries are discussed in some detail below. 

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