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In general the interest for biomass production and utilisation (and in particular for co-generation) is growing considerably because of the diffuse awareness of the socio-economic, political and environmental benefits.

In the next 10 to 15 years a number of future biofuels might potentially come on the market. In this paper we will discuss the supply chains of the most promising biofuels, i.e. Ethanol and ETBE from lignocellulosic (woody) biomass; Fischer-Tropsch diesel from lignocellulosic biomass; HTU diesel. Compared with current biofuels, these new products are expected to show superior performance in terms of cost, environmental impact and socio-economic effects.

The biological transformation, by which organic matter is degraded to methane and carbon dioxide is commonly called “methanogenesis”. The main product of methanogenesis, a mixture of carbon dioxide and methane, is called “biogas”. The term “biogas” was registered as trade name (Institute of Gas Technology, Chicago, United States), but nevertheless, is commonly used by the public.

Genomic and proteomic approaches to the study of fundamental cell mechanisms are rapidly contributing to broaden our knowledge on metabolic pathways for the optimal exploitation of the cell as a factory. In the last few years this knowledge has led to important advances in the large scale production of diagnostic and therapeutic proteins in heterologous hosts (bacteria, yeasts, mammalian and insect cells or transgenic animals and plants), allowing the comparison of the most efficient methods in terms of costs, product quality and safety.

Antibodies are multi-subunit glycoproteins, produced by the vertebrate immune system. They recognize and bind to their target antigens with great affinity and specificity, which allows them to be used for many applications, including the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of human and animal disease (Anderson and Krummen 2003; Chad and Chamow 2001; Fischer and Emans 2000). It is estimated that approximately 1000 therapeutic recombinant antibodies are under development, up to one quarter of which may already be undergoing clinical trials. A large proportion of these antibodies recognize cancer antigens but others have been developed for the diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases, acquired disorders and even transplant rejection (Gavilondo and Larrick 2000). As well as biomedical applications, antibodies can also be exploited to prevent diseases in plants (Schillberg et al. 2001), to detect and remove environmental contaminants, and for various industrial processes such as affinity purification and molecular targeting (Stoger et al. 2005b).

Although the production of most of the current medicines is based on chemical synthesis, more than 25% of the current prescribed drugs contains at least one active ingredient of plant origin (Kaufman et al 1999). Examples of important plant-derived pharmaceuticals include the antitumoral taxol and vinblastine, the antimalarial drug quinine and artemisinin, the analgesical morphine and codeine. In addition, it has been estimated that more than 80% of the world’s population in developing countries depends primarily on herbal medicine for basic healthcare needs (Vines 2004). There is also a revival of traditional medicine in developed countries and an increase in the use of herbal remedies. The world market of herbal medicines, including herbal and raw material, has been estimated to have an annual growth rate between 5–15%. Total global herbal drug market is estimated as US $ 62 billion and it is expected to grow to US $ 5 trillion by the year 2050 (Joshi et al. 2004). At same time, there is a growing concern on loss of genetic diversity since about 75% of the 50,000 different medicinal plant species in use are collected from the wild (Edwards 2004). Moreover, to rely solely on wild spontaneous plants as a production system can be extremely dangerous, as shown recently by severe shortage problems of the antimalarial artemisinin (Scheindlin 2005). Additionally, bioactive plant compounds are produced generally at very low amount and, often, it is not economically convenient to extract them from natural sources.

In the European Union, it is estimated that 50% of the primary energy supplied by different renewable energy sectors comes from wood (EurObserver 2003). The wood energy sector is based on sustainable use of European forests and to a certain extent recovered wood, forest industrial byproducts (e.g. bark and sawdust) and wood from plantations: energy from agriculture, i.e. agricultural residues, e.g. straw, also contributes to the EU energy supply (European Commission 1997).