Over the last 50 years petroleum has become the primary feedstock for industrial organic chemical production. Over the next 50 years it is anticipated that there will be a growing use of renewable feedstocks in chemical manufacturing. In this review, the motivations for developing alternatives to petro-chemicals are discussed, and we highlight exciting advances in biotechnology that promise to make biomass-based feedstocks more attractive in the future. We argue that separations remain a key bottleneck to the recovery of organic chemicals from renewable resources. Finally, we consider our research to understand the mechanistic interactions responsible for adsorption onto polymeric adsorbents. We provide examples illustrating how knowledge of hydrogen-bonding interactions can be exploited for separating chemicals from renewable resources. We especially focus on oxygenated aromatic compounds (OACs) that are abundant in biomass-based feedstocks.