Abstract
Biorefineries combine essential technologies between bio-based raw materials, intermediate products, and final products. Cassava is considered to be one of the major food crops in Sri Lanka, which has numerous industrial applications. Besides, cassava plant can be cultivated at a lower cost with relatively low labour and fertilizer. There are many industrially relevant products which can be developed using cassava tubers and plant as main ingredients; they are starch (about 20% by w/w), fibre, cellulose, and hemicellulose. The applications of the cassava plant range from food, feed, textile, pharmaceutical, detergent, alcohol, organic acids, glucose, and bio-plastic industries. Moreover, the waste generated during the production of cassava-based products, including wastewater, bagasse, pulp, etc., can be converted into valuable products such as biofuel, organic acids, biosurfactants and biochemicals via bioprocessing. Therefore, cassava plant should be explored to fully maximize its potential as an industrial crop for interested entrepreneurs to provide economic and environmental sustainability to cassava-based industries in Sri Lanka. This paper presents more effective and efficient conversion processes for converting the cassava root, leaves and stem into highvalue products. Therefore, maintenance of sustainability during production is also analysed in cassava-based industries with prime importance.