24 Review © 2007 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd The biochemurgist – Bioconversion of agricultural raw materials for chemical production Apostolis A. Koutinas, Ruo-Hang Wang and Colin Webb, University of Manchester, UK Received 19 March 2007; revised version received 4 May 2007; accepted 16 May 2007 Published online 16 July 2007 in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com); DOI: 10.1002/bbb.6; Biofuels, Bioprod. Bioref. 1:24–38 (2007) Abstract: Current cereal- and oilseed-based processes for the production of chemicals should be restructured into advanced biorefining strategies in order to reduce environmental impact, improve overall economics and meet market/societal needs. Next generation biorefineries should utilize all grain or oilseed components as well as any associated residues for the production of a spectrum of products ranging from biofuels and biodegradable plastics to commodity, platform and speciality chemicals. Generic biorefining concepts are proposed in the case of wheat and rapeseed. Glycerol produced as by-product from biodiesel production could be upgraded into an important raw material for the production of various chemicals through microbial bioconversions or enzymatic biotransformations. © 2007 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd Keywords: cereals; oilseeds; biorefinery; biofuels; biodegradable plastics; platform chemicals Introduction T he term ‘chemurgy’ was introduced by the chemist William J. Hale who published the book he Farm Chemurgic in 1934 to describe the production of industrial products from agricultural raw materials. As a result, the chemurgist is a scientist that converts agricultural or organic raw materials into industrial and chemical prod- ucts. Since biochemical engineering and biochemistry were not well developed disciplines in the irst half of the twentieth century, it is timely to introduce the term biochemurgist, who is the scientist that exploits fundamental principles from biochemical engineering, biochemistry and chemistry to develop clean and sustainable technologies that combine physical, chemical and biological processing to convert agri- cultural or organic raw materials into conventional or new chemical products. Increased scienti ic and commercial interest in the devel- opment of viable bioreining strategies converting renew- able raw materials into biofuels, platform chemicals and Correspondence to: Apostolis A. Koutinas, School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science, The University of Manchester, PO Box 88, Manchester M60 1QD, UK. E-mail: apostolis.koutinas@manchester.ac.uk