Back to the Future with Biorefineries: Bottom‐Up and Top‐Down Approaches toward Polymers and Monomers

The establishment of novel biomass processing schemes is key for achieving the much‐needed carbon neutrality and counteract global warming. Biomass provides a range of monomers and macromolecules with great potential to replace petro‐based materials in a wide range of applications. While important developments are ongoing in the biorefinery space, cross‐sectoral, multidisciplinary partnerships are paramount to speed up and de‐risk the industrialization of such technologies, and an integrated view is necessary to achieve process feasibility. This perspective explores both bottom‐up and top‐down approaches for biomass valorization based on the main natural polymers and monomers that can be extracted or isolated from biomass. A special emphasis is put on scalability, economic feasibility, and resource availability while the biggest challenges in the path toward the development of biorefineries are also discussed. Biomass is a versatile source of macromolecules and monomers. Their uses are increasing in industrial settings and many materials hold promise for improving the carbon footprint of future materials.