Market potential of biorefinery products

Book chapter, 2012

Human beings have always influenced their habitats and the conversion of natural ecosystems to anthropogenic landscapes is perhaps the most evident alteration of the Earth. Human societies have put almost half of the world’s land surface to their service, and human land use has caused extensive land degradation and biodiversity loss, and also emissions to air and water contributing to impacts such as eutrophication, acidification, stratospheric ozone depletion and climate change. The substitution of biomass with fossil resources has – together with the intensification of agriculture – saved large areas from deforestation and conversion to agricultural land. However, intensified land management and the use of oil, coal and natural gas cause many of the environmental impacts we see today. Societies therefore take measures to reduce the dependence on fossil resources and return to relying more on biomass and other renewable resources.