BIOREFINERIES AND BIOBASED PRODUCTS FROM THE CONSUMER'S POINT OF VIEW

The biorefinery concept is seen as a key approach for the greening of the chemical industry in the coming decades. The paper analyses the view points of consumers with respect to the biorefinery concepts and biobased products in six countries of the EU. Based on a written consumer survey it could be shown that the respondents assessed biorefinery concepts rather positively with negative remarks with respect to increasing monocultures in agriculture or rising food prices. A part of the consumers showed a limited willingness-to-pay for biobased products which depend on the product characteristics, attitudes of consumers and other factors