  The demand for petroleum dependent chemicals and materials has been
increasing despite the dwindling of their fossil resources. As the dead-end of
petroleum based industry has started to appear, today's modern society has to
implement alternative energy and valuable chemical resources immediately. Owing
to the importance of lignocellulosic biomass being the most abundant and
bio-renewable biomass on earth, this critical review provides insights into the
potential of lignocellulosic biomass as an alternative platform to fossil
resources. In this context, over 200 value-added compounds, which can be
derived from lignocellulosic biomass by various treatment methods, are
presented with their references. Lignocellulosic biomass based polymers and
their commercial importance are also reported mainly in the frame of these
compounds. This review article aims to draw the map of lignocellulosic biomass
derived chemicals and their synthetic polymers, and to reveal the scope of this
map in today's modern chemical and polymer industry.
