With crude oil reserves dwindling, the hunt for a sustainable alternative feedstock for fuels and materials for our society continues to expand. The biorefinery concept has enjoyed both a surge in popularity and also vocal opposition to the idea of diverting food-grade land and crops for this purpose. The idea of using the inevitable wastes arising from biomass processing, particularly farming and food production, is, therefore, gaining more attention as the feedstock for the biorefinery. For the three main components of biomass—carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins—there are long-established processes for using some of these by-products. However, the recent advances in chemical technologies are expanding both the feedstocks available for processing and the products that be obtained. Herein, this review presents some of the more recent developments in processing these molecules for green materials, as well as case studies that bring these technologies and materials together into final products for applied usage.

随着原油储量的减少，我们社会对燃料和材料的可持续替代原料的需求不断扩大。生物精炼厂的概念越来越受欢迎，但也有人强烈反对为此目的而转移食品级土地和农作物的想法。因此，利用生物质加工（特别是农业和食品生产）中不可避免的废物作为生物精炼厂的原料的想法越来越受到关注。对于生物质的三种主要成分——碳水化合物、脂质和蛋白质——有一些长期使用的副产品的使用过程。然而，化学技术的最新进展正在扩大可用于加工的原料和获得的产品。本文介绍了将这些分子加工成绿色材料的一些最新进展，以及将这些技术和材料整合到最终产品中以供应用的案例研究。