Catalytic Transformation of Biomass: From Waste to Fuels, Chemicals, and High-Value Products

Abstract

The necessity of biomass valorization arises from global energy and environmental and economic challenges. Catalytic transformation of biomass into fuels, chemicals, and other valuable products has emerged as a promising approach toward a sustainable and circular economy. The primary objective of this review is to provide a timely and comprehensive overview of the entire value chain for the high-value utilization of biomass, covering the entire process from biomass feedstock and its preliminary conversion to catalytic upgrading, and finally to the production of fuels, chemicals, and other high-value-added products. Recent advances in catalytic technologies reveal that there is a strong potential to convert diverse biomass wastes into a wide range of valuable fuels, chemicals, and other products, ranging from heterogeneous solid catalysts with advantages in recovery and reusability to single-atom catalysts with enhanced selectivity and activity, as well as electrocatalytic and photo-electrocatalytic systems that enable energy efficiency under mild conditions using renewable power. Although significant progress has been made in converting complex biomass into versatile platform molecules and end-products, the inherent complexity and variability of real-world biomass, together with the economic challenges of competing with established fossil systems, still currently limit large-scale applications.