A renewable substitute for energy production is necessary due to the fast depletion of natural resources. Abundant enzymes are already known for hydrolysing lignocellulosic biomass, but their low efficiency needs immediate technological interventions. The microbial consortia should be capable of growing on multiple carbon sources such as glucose, xylose, arabinose, etc., thus enhancing the yield of value-added products. Additionally, they should resist inhibitory compounds released during lignocellulosic biomass treatment. Recent biotechnology and genetic engineering advancements have proffered various methodologies to enhance the activity of such microbes and lignocellulolytic enzymes. In particular, the targets are the enzymes involved in the saccharifying pathways and the metabolites that are part of the cascade. They can be altered via gene editing, mutagenesis, cell surface display, or co-culture engineering. The cumulative effect of multiple enzyme expression cassettes is quite efficient, as a single host is anticipated to produce all the enzymes required for degrading the target biomass. Emerging synthetic biology strategies like metagenomics and CRISPR-Cas have attracted much attention in this segment. Biorefineries relying on lignocellulosic biomass are focused on efficiently converting raw materials into conventional value-added products like bioethanol, bioplastics, biofuels, etc. In addition, upcoming products like sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), gamma-valerolactone (GVL), hydrogels, and other biochemicals are also becoming the focus of emerging biorefineries.