Huge quantities of food crops are increasingly being used as raw materials for production of biofuels. For example, cane sugar and grains of corn and wheat are converted to ethanol and mixed with gasoline. In addition, palm oil and other vegetable oils are being converted to biodiesel. Such production is believed to lead to rising food prices, a lack of food and increased irrigation and consumption of fertilizers.

In the future, sustainable production of biofuels can only be based on lignocellulosic non-food feedstocks, such as agricultural residues and dedicated energy crops cultivated on marginal lands. Global annual generation of agricultural residues exceeds 5 billion tonnes, whereas cultivation of energy crops can manifoldly exceed the potential of agricultural residues. For example, the surplus fields in Europe alone could produce an amount of biomass equal to the global availability of wheat straw. For comparison, global annual production of crude oil is approximately 4 billion tonnes.

formicobio™ offers an environmentally benign, patented solution for converting these materials into high-grade bioethanol, whereas formicochem™ offers a solution for producing various chemicals that are currently produced from crude oil.