Potential of bioethanol as a chemical building block for biorefineries: Preliminary sustainability assessment of 12 bioethanol-based products

► Potential of bioethanol as raw material for biorefineries (to bulk chemicals). ► Multi-criteria early-stage sustainability assessment method for bio-based process. ► Screening and selection of bioethanol derivatives based on sustainability. ► Bioethanol derivatives categorization: favorable, promising and unfavorable. ► Sensitivity, scenarios and uncertainty analyses were performed.