The above listed biochemicals have been identified and discussed in the report due to their higher significance in Indian context based on ‘technical feasibility’ and ‘market attractiveness’ within India. The same have been verified through secondary survey of several research reports available in public domain and inputs & feedback received through primary survey from research scientists and leading industry players in India. 

Sorbitol is currently produced at commercial scale via chemical route. Globally, there is no microbial route being used for sorbitol production at present. Different companies are working towards using sorbitol to get glycol, mannitol and isosorbides. Currently, there are no major initiatives in India to develop or adopt processes for production of isosorbide and poly -ethylene-co-isosorbide- terephthalate (PEIT); however, there exists a potential market for these derivatives of sorbitol.

Technology for production of Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) is still far from reaching the stage of commercialization. There are no significant research initiatives by any Indian research institutes or companies. Even internationally, only a few research institutes and companies have managed to make significant moves in this direction.  

Production of Levulinic acid is expensive; hence it is currently a relatively small market specialty chemical. Le Calorie is the world’s first commercial-scale plant built in 2006 to produce levulinic acid. At present, in India it is not being produced at commercial scale.

Xylitol is already being produced commercially, however, production is still expensive and further research is underway to achieve lower cost methods. China, Brazil, U.S., Finland, and a few other European countries are the major producer of xylitol at present. Presently, xylitol is not being manufactured in India at industrial scale and the domestic demand is being catered through imports.

Globally, Furfural production is already happening at commercial scale using acid-catalyzed hydrolysis. In India, National Chemcial Laboratory (NCL), Pune has developed a bench scale & patented one-step process for production of furfural by heterogeneous catalytic route.

Currently, most of the world production of Glutamic acid and Mono-Sodium Glutamate (MSG) is by bacterial fermentation. Indian requirements for Glutamic acid & MSG are largely met by imports.