The different strategies to achieve a sustainable conversion of biomass to bioproducts will be examined. Whereas biomass conversion is widely envisioned to proceed via platform molecules that are employed as building blocks to produce chemicals, an alternative value chain is proposed that proceeds via more direct and cost effective routes and do not necessarily duplicate chemicals currently produced from fossil resources. Biopolymers such as starch or cellulose as well as plant oils can be converted in one or few steps to a mixture of molecules that can be used without further separation for the manufacture of high tonnage end-products such as paper, paints, resins, foams, lubricants, and plasticisers, that do not require the use of isolated, pure molecules. This process-driven approach will be illustrated by examples taken from literature data and results from our laboratory. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.