TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - BIOLOGY - Preferred Process: The process (P1) for converting biomass into soluble and insoluble products, involves: (ia) incubating the biomass with an aqueous acidic liquor so that a soluble product, or a combination of soluble products, are separated from the biomass and dissolved in the acidic liquor; (iia) separating the acidic liquor containing the soluble product(s) from the resulting solid residue of the biomass; (iiia) recovering the soluble products from the acidic liquor; (iva) recovering the acidic liquor from the separated liquid and the solid residue for reuse; (va) grinding the insoluble solid residue recovered from step (iia) and further hydrolyzing the insoluble solid residue with cellulase enzyme; and (vi) recovering the resulting soluble products and the insoluble lignin products from steps (iia)-(iiia) and the resulting solid residue. In the process, the converted products are further converted to bioenergy, biochemicals and/or other bulk materials. In the process, the recovered lignin products are further converted into lignin-related products.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - INORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preferred Components: The acidic liquor in step (i/ia) comprises an inorganic (mineral) acid.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - ORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preferred Components: The acidic liquor in step (i/ia) comprises a low-boiling point organic acid. The organic acid in step (i/ia) is selected from formic acid, acetic acid, 2-hydroxypropionic acid, propionic acid, acrylic acid, propylene-2-carboxylic acid, n-pentanoic acid, lactic acid, trifluoromethane sulfonic acid, methyl acrylic acid and/or trifluoroacetic acid (TFA). EXAMPLE - Wheat straw was dried at 50 degrees C and cut into fragments 2.5 cm in length. Then, 1 g of straw fragments and 10 ml of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) at a concentration of 30% were added to a hydrothermal reaction vessel, sealed, and heated at 80 degrees C for 3 hours. The resulting reaction mixture was cooled to room temperature and then filtered. The resulting filtration solid residue was dried at 50 degrees C for carbohydrate and lignin analysis. The remaining TFA in the filtration was evaporated with a rotary evaporator before a reducing sugar analysis of the resulting filtration solid residue. The obtained solid residue had characteristics as follows: the amount of solid residue mass: 0.76 g; carbohydrates: 52%; acid insoluble lignin: 34%; and soluble lignin: 1.8%.