I think the market potential depends a lots on the countries government supports and various NGO/academic institution supports. For instance, Brazil which is a country that produce sugar cane in a massive scale had their government support to study more about the potential of using sugar case as a source of fuel.

There's a huge amount of research into this field. Energy or raw materials from waste will become big business.
A consortium of world-leading companies comprising Air Liquide, Nouryon (formerly AkzoNobel Specialty Chemicals), Enerkem and the Port of Rotterdam – has announced that Shell will join as a partner in Europe’s first advanced waste-to-chemicals facility in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The planned facility will convert up to 360,000 tons of waste into 220,000 tons (270 million litres) of bio-methanol – a chemical building block that is used to manufacture a broad range of everyday products, as well as being a renewable fuel. This represents the total annual waste of more than 700,000 households and represents CO2 emission savings estimated at about 300,000 tons when compared to the production of methanol from fossil fuels.

Yes there is significant opportunity in the future and will be driven as always by the consumer , governments provide the incentives, legislation and structure with companies and corporations developing the marketing mix to maximise shareholder return . My only true concern in this market is the variety of solutions currently available , confusing consumer preferences.
the competitors in this space are likely to come from new players identifying new waste streams on shore and off shore