Chemicals and value added compounds from biomass using sub- and supercritical water.

Review summarizes the research on the biomass conversion for production of chemicals and an overview on recent activities of our research group on isolation of substances from biomass using sub- and supercritical water. Herein, hydrothermal processing of biomass waste represents an alternative approach to upswing the productivity chemicals, basic chemicals for synthesis and plant-based pharmaceutical compounds. The processing concepts to obtain products and product classes based on biological raw materials in gaseous, liquid, or solid state are presented. Subcritical water is discussed as a highly reactive media to enhance extraction affinity of value added compounds, such as proteins and amino acids, essential oils, oils and fatty acids, carbohydrates and phenolic compounds from natural sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]