Pretreatment is still a major technical barrier for biochemical conversion of lignocellulosic biomass as the current thermochemical processes are energy intensive and with environmental concerns.  Naturally existing biological processes in wood-feeding termites offer attractive alternatives.  Recent progress in the research with termite digestive systems has demonstrated the potential of such systems and the unique merits in biomass pretreatment.  However, little attention has given to these termites as a complete consolidated biological system for cell wall degradation.  The objective of this paper is to provide an account for biomass processing in termite as a system.  Based on the data obtained using microprobe, NMR, and Pyrolysis GC-MS, we established the fact that termites (Coptotermes formosanus and Reticulitermes flavipes) indeed provide the particular chemical microhabitats to ensure the pretreatment process and harbor an effective enzyme system capable of not only hydrolyzing hemicelluloses and cellulose, but also modifying lignin components.  By studying the efficiency of plant cell wall degradation and conducting energy balance analysis in the termite species tested, we propose to use wood-feeding termite system as a model for developing future generations of biorefineries because of various merits that lack in the traditional methods with thermochemical pathways.  Biological pretreatment is more environmentally benign, requires less energy, produces fewer inhibitors, and more desirable co-products.  As more insights available on the biochemical mechanisms of plant cell wall deconstruction in the highly effective termite digestive systems, a new generation of pretreatment technologies that mimic the termite system can be developed to realize these benefits, which will be made possible with the combined advances in biotechnology and engineering sciences.