ABSTRACT
The high demand for the production of biofuels has focused on biomass from second-generation sources as one of the most promising methods for production of fuels, chemicals, and materials. Lignocellulosic materials, from cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin, require one or more processes as pretreatments to carry out a partial or total fractionation of their components, leaving the cellulose more accessible for an enzymatic breakdown and thus the efficient production of biofuels. In addition, the products of degradation that remain in the process can be approved for food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetology applications, chemicals, and plastics, all under the concept of the biorefinery using biochemical or thermochemical platforms. This chapter is an overview of various processes that exist as biochemical and thermochemical platforms and that are applied under the concept of a biorefinery for biofuels and bioproducts.
