Exploring rice straw’s potential from a sustainable biorefinery standpoint: Towards valorization and diverse product production

Due to population rise, the agriculture sector is creating a rising volume of process by-products of great commercial and nutritional value. The opportunity to decrease waste production while also upgrading the same into value-added chemicals and bio-derived products is provided by a biorefinery based on agricultural wastes such as rice straw (RS). Moreover, from an energy, environmental, and economic standpoint, RS is a resourceful agri-residue with potential of complete valorization and diverse product production capabilities. In this review, the potential of biorefineries is discussed, along with the value-added products that could be made from each of the three major structural components (cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin) of RS and a brief description of the steps used to obtain them. The review's main goal is to succinctly illustrate how valuable and potentially beneficial RS is, as a bioresource for a variety of uses, including food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, bio-medicine, engineering, bio-fuels, and bio-energy. It also uniquely incorporates cost-benefit analysis of some of the RS bio-refineries in addition to the social and techno-economic aspects. Conclusively, the review would be insightful for scientific fraternity, academia, and industrialists to improve on current procedures or come up with fresh ideas for the sustainable management of RS or for any lignocellulosic biomass as well.