Catalytic Transformation of Biomass: From Waste to Fuels, Chemicals, and High-Value Products
| Authors: | Sijin Guo, Qiangu Yan, Zhiyong Cai, Jilei Zhang, Yucheng Peng |
| Year: | 2026 |
| Type: | Scientific Journal |
| Station: | Forest Products Laboratory |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.3390/catal16090796 |
| Source: | Catalysts |
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.