ABSTRACT

Environmental and political issues created by our dependence on fossil fuels, such as global warming and national security, combined with diminishing petroleum resources are causing our society to search for new renewable sources of energy and chemicals, and an important sustainable source of organic fuels, chemicals and materials is plant biomass. We present an overview of the important classes of reactions involved in the conversion biomass to fuels and chemicals, as well as strategies for catalytic conversion of biomass via the intermediate production of platform chemicals. We show that one of these platform chemicals is hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), and we demonstrate how high yields of HMF can be obtained by dehydration of carbohydrates in a biphasic reactor. The HMF product can be used as a high-value monomer for the polymer industry, and we show how HMF be converted over Cu-based catalysts to dimethylfuran, which can be used as a high-octane blending agent in gasoline. We also show how sugars and polyols can be converted catalytically to alcohols and olefins for the chemical industry.