Preface.

List of Contributors.

1. The Biorefinery Concept-An Integrated Approach (James H. Clark and Fabien E. I. Deswarte).

1.1. The Challenge of Sustainable Development.

1.2. Renewable Resources - Nature and Availability.

1.3. Impact on Ecosystem Services.

1.4. The Biorefinery Concept.

1.5. Conclusions.

2. The Chemical Value of Biomass (David B. Turley).

2.1. Introduction.

2.2. Plant Oils.

2.3. Carbohydrates.

2.4. Lignin.

2.5. Proteins.

2.6. Waxes.

2.7. Secondary Metabolites.

2.8. Prospects Arising from Developments in Plant Biotechnology and Biorefining.

2.9. Concluding Comments.

3. Green Chemical Technologies (Francesca M. Kerton).

3.1. Introduction.

3.2. What are Green Chemistry and Green Engineering?

3.3. Evaluating the Environmental Effects of Chemistry and Green Metrics.

3.4. Alternative Solvents.

3.5. Energy Considerations: Microwaves, Ultrasound, Electricity and Light.

3.6. Catalysts.

3.7. Conclusions.

4. Production of Chemicals from Biomass (Apostolis A. Koutinas, C. Du, R.H. Wang and Colin Webb).

4.1. Introduction.

4.2. Carbohydrates.

4.3. Vegetable Oils.

4.4. Chemical Production from Proteins.

4.5. Chemical Production through Green Chemical.

5. Biomaterials (Carlos Vaca-Garcia).

5.1. Introduction.

5.2. Wood and Natural Fibres.

5.3. Isolated and modified Biopolymers ads Biomaterials.

5.4. Agromaterials, Blends and Composites.

5.5. Biodegradable Plastics.

5.6. Conclusion.

6. Production of Energy from Biomass (Mehrdad Arshadi and Anita Sellstedt).

6.1. Introduction.

6.2. Physical Upgrading Processes.

6.3. Microbiological Processes.

6.4. Thermochemical Processes.

6.5. Chemical Processes.

6.6. Power Generation from Biomass.

Index.