Introducing the I &ECR Virtual Special Issue: The Conversion of Biomass to X, 2025–2026

RecommendationsE ach day, the sun rises, plants take CO 2 from the air and convert it into a myriad of forms of biomass.As our world moves back toward a biobased economy, the conversion of biomass to high value products (Biomass to X) becomes the key concept required to establish our transition to this circular, low-carbon economy.The abundance of agricultural and forest residues presents an opportunity to reduce society's dependence on petroleum.We highlight within this issue of Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research (I&ECR) the need for continued improvement and new ideas in the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to high value, renewable chemicals, and fuels.We are delighted to release "The Conversion of Biomass to X 2025" as a Special Issue (VSI): https://pubs.acs.org/page/ iecred/vi/conversion-of-biomass.In this VSI, I&ECR has gathered contributions from a global group of researchers across a diverse range of topics aiming to advance the translation of fundamental science into novel methods of converting biomass to high-value products.The articles selected for this VSI highlight contributions addressing the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass via various pretreatment and fractionation processes, gasification, catalysis, electrification, and/or process intensification across the breadth of the journal's scope.Dalai and co-workers review the numerous methodologies of converting biomass, including waste feedstocks, to biomethane. 1 They investigate the parameters that influence the economic viability of renewable natural gas production, emphasizing biogas upgradation from anaerobic digestion.With recognition that economics determine whether biobased projects are built, they explore capital and operating costs, as well as different sources of revenue, as determining agents for case-specific project profitability.Ranade and co-workers follow with a related study on the leftover part after anaerobic digestion to methane, the residual digestate. 2They show that the biomethane potential (BMP) is dependent on the carbon to nitrogen ratio (C/N) and propose utilizing dissolved air flotation (DAF) sludge from the dairy industry, which has a high (C/N) ratio (∼30) as codigestate with the primary digestate.They show that the hydrodynamic cavitation-assisted codigestion approach provides a sustainable pathway for valorizing two of the most difficult waste streams in the AD and dairy industries.