**4. Platform chemicals**

Most chemicals produced in biorefinery are platform chemicals. A platform chemical is a building block which can be converted to a wide range of chemicals or materials. Bomtempo et al. [33] listed ways on how to determine if a compound is a platform chemical:

a.Act as a link in the value chain.


Various processes have been used for the production of platform chemicals from cellulose in the biomass based biorefinery. **Table 3** summarize different methods used to produce the platform chemicals from plant biomass.


#### **Table 3.**

*Biorefinery platform chemicals and production processes [34, 35].*
