Among the major challenges facing society today seeking renewable alternatives to
petroleum-based fuels and manufactured goods is critically important to reducing society's
dependency on petroleum and tackling environmental issues associated with petroleum use. In
recent years there has been considerable research targeted toward the development of
plant-derived bioproducts to replace petrochemical feedstocks for both fuel and manufacturing.
Plants not only provide a large amount of renewable biomass but their biochemical diversity
also offers many chemical and molecular tools for the production of new products through
biotechnology. Plant Bioproducts is an introduction to the production and application of plant
bioproducts including biofuels bioplastics and biochemicals for the manufacturing sector.
Contributing authors examine various bioproducts with respect to their basic chemistry
relationship to current petrochemical-based products and strategies for their production in
plants. Chapters cover the integrated roles of agronomy plant breeding biotechnology and
biorefining in the context of bioproduct development. Environmental economic ethical and
social issues surrounding bioproducts including the use of genetically modified crops
challenges to food security and consumer acceptance are also covered.
