There are several production routes for advanced liquid biofuels; however, none have yet reached the fully commercial stage. An overview of the biomass-derived biofuels production is shown in Fig. 1. Biomass is produced via photosynthesis, which is then processed either by biochemical or thermochemical routes to make liquid biofuels like bioalcohols, biodiesel, and biosynfuels. The biorefinery con­cept, usually based on either biochemical — or thermochemical routes, is exploited to produce biofuels from single or multiple feedstocks with value-added co­products and heat and power generation (IE A 2008). In fact, the production of high-value chemicals and bulk quantities of low-value biofuels maximizes the return from biomass feedstock, thereby improving the economic performance of advanced biofuels in a similar fashion as do the oil refineries nowadays. There is no single technology as of now that can use any feedstocks for biofuels process­ing; therefore, on-going research at laboratory, pilot, and demonstration plant is warranted. Such initiative will perfect the processes and technologies tailoring them to different feedstocks. At the moment, it is not clear, which feedstocks,

(Electricity)

Fig. 2 A network illustration to show the applications of products from thermochemical and biochemical conversion routes processes, and pathways will yield the minimal-cost biofuels or otherwise have the maximum potential for cost reductions over time. A network diagram to illustrate the application of products from biochemical and thermochemical routes using biomass feedstocks is shown in Fig. 2.