A biorefinery that supplements its manufacture of low value biofuels with high value biobased chemicals can enable efforts to reduce nonrenewable fuel consumption while simultaneously providing the necessary financial incentive to stimulate expansion of the biorefining industry. However, incorporating chemical products into the biorefinery's portfolio faces two primary challenges: 1) a lack of broad-based conversion technologies and 2) a plethora of potential targets. As a result, the biorefinery faces a tension between �what structures result easily from a given technology?� (i. e., a lack of conversion processes) and �what product should we make?� (i. e., an overabundance of targets). Addressing these questions by trying to pre-identify a small list of specific structures suffers from inflexibility, does not address the diverse nature of the chemical industry and fails to recognize the role that will be played by synthetic technology development. This paper describes a selection process for chemical products combining identification of a small group of compounds derived from biorefinery carbohydrates with the research and technology needs required for their production. We will present an evaluation of potential target structures using similar selection methodology, and an overview of the technology developments that led to the inclusion of a given compound. The resulting list of structures and their associated technology needs provides a dynamic guide to biorefinery development that could realize commercial success through the proper integration of biofuels with biobased products.

Biobased product opportunities for carbohydrate conversion in the biorefinery: The “top 10+4”

241st National Meeting (2011)

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