Shifting from fossil-based economy to bio-based economy: Status quo, challenges, and prospects

Highlights: • A retrospect of biomass feedstocks, conversion approaches and final use. • Detailed classification, distribution and estimation methods of biomass feedstocks. • A novel indicator framework for sustainability assessment of biomass resources. • Challenges and prospects towards the achievement of sustainable bioeconomy. The growing environmental concerns and the prospect of irreversible climate change highlight the necessity for the rapid transformation from fossil-based economy to the modern circular bio-based economy. Yet the urgency of green transformation may lead to insufficient consideration of scientific concerns about the sustainability of accelerated biomass deployment, and the inherent complexity and uncertainty in the assessment present a challenge to policy makers, researchers, and industry. This review aims to provide a retrospect towards the status of biomass resources from the feedstock to conversion process, and end-use. Understanding the distribution and potential projections of major biomass types are also critical steps to ensuring sustainable supply chains. A novel indicator framework was further established for assessing the sustainability of biomass resources by integrating the environmental and social-economic dimensions. Different indicators are interdependently connected and vary significantly among the feedstock categories, land use types and management practices. All of which are important considerations of the criteria for systematic research in the future, understanding the alternative potential of biomass resources, providing important insights for accelerating the transition to bio-based economy, as well as policy regulation.