Abstract Fossil based resources are a major contributor to energy and chemicals to modern-day development. The negative environmental impacts of fossil-based resources accompanied by its fast depletion has alerted the scientific community and governments to find an alternative source. Biobased biorefineries are dependent on the natural organic biomass for the generation of biofuel and biochemicals. The present review is a comprehensive account of biobased biorefineries focusing on substrates, processes that include existing conventional and advanced biotechnologies approaches for its successful implementations on a large scale. The environmental, life cycle, socio-economic sustainability, and policy decision of biobased refineries are also discussed. Further, it can be the potential future alternative to fulfill the dream of a biobased circular economy. The review suggests that biomass being abundantly available and has great potential to be used for the generation of biofuel and biochemicals due to the technological advances available in the area. The integration of biobased refineries steps into existing petrochemical refineries structure can facilitate sustainable development replacing fossil-based products without the need of developing new infrastructures. The concept of utilization of biomass in the biobased refineries can act as a model system for the future circular bioeconomy.