AbstractMajor progress in the bioprocessing of lignocellulose to fuels and value‐added chemicals has created the possibility of a low carbon‐footprint economy. However, the current complexity and associated costs of lignocellulose conversion result in a higher price for ethanol than for fossil fuels. The cost of cellulosic ethanol production will be lowered by further progress in development of biorefinery technology that produces both ethanol and high‐value chemicals with bio‐based products that are beginning to penetrate consumer markets in the USA, Brazil, and worldwide. The cost‐effectiveness of low carbon‐footprint bioproducts will benefit from advances in supplying large amounts of biomass solids to the biorefinery. We describe here outcomes from a successful long‐term international cooperation between the Laboratory of Renewable Resources Engineering (LORRE) at Purdue University in the United States and Brazil's Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA) and Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), which has contributed practical pathways to enhance the biorefinery concept. This paper gives an overview of developments that address fundamental knowledge of lignocellulosic biomass pretreatment hydrolysis under optimized operational conditions and bioreactor configurations, and the science and engineering that contributes to the effective production of fuel and ethanol and value‐added products from biomass. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd