ABSTRACT
Complete conversion of all the biomass to chemicals could possibly result in marketing problems when one product has much greater apparent utility than the others. A number of integrated systems for joint production of chemicals and food can be designed. Biomass conversion plants should convert all the components of the starting material into useful products just as petroleum refineries and meat packing plants utilize all their raw materials. In considering coproduction of chemicals and fuels, it is the marketing of biomass conversion products for fuel applications that defines this category. Some products fall into more than one category, for example, glucose can be used for either chemicals or food and ethanol for chemicals or fuel. The sugars so produced, mostly xylose in the case of hardwoods and mannose in the case of softwoods, could be processed to chemicals.
