Research areas that should be addressed to increase the economic feasibility
of biochemical conversion processes include (i) improving effectiveness of
biomass pretreatment, (ii) increasing enzymatic hydrolysis yields, (iii)
decreasing enzyme cost, (iv) reuse of enzymes, (v) genetically modifying
microorganisms for efficient fermentation of pentose and hexose sugars, and
(vi) producing high value co-products to improve process economics.