Chapter 17 - Cellulose valorization to potential platform chemicals

Abstract

The conversion of cellulose biomass to renewable and valuable chemicals has become the topic of intense research mostly driven by growing concerns about the depletion of petroleum oil reserves and the need to build sustainable societies. Naturally occurring cellulose and extracted cellulose from lignocellulosic biomass can be used as a renewable resource for the sustainable production of platform chemicals that can in turn be converted into valuable fine chemicals, polymers, and fuels. Cellulose is the most abundant, inexhaustible, and sustainable biopolymer. However, the low reactivity of cellulose has prevented its use in the chemical industry except for paper manufacturing. Heterogeneous catalysis for the conversion of cellulose has been expected to overcome this issue. Various types of heterogeneous catalysts can be designed and applied under a wide range of reaction conditions. However, the catalytic processing of biomass-derived feedstocks to liquid fuels and chemical intermediates is complex and expensive; therefore, many challenges have to be overcome to replace the fossil fuel–based economy with sustainable technologies. Cellulose represents the largest fraction of the annual biomass production. It is therefore envisioned to be the major starting input in upcoming biorefineries that will fuel the bio-based chemical industry. Furthermore, solid catalysts are easily recovered and reused. The conversion of cellulose is a promising approach owing to its high selectivity, mild conditions, and low energy loss. In this chapter, we summarize various perspectives on heterogeneous catalysis and the biocatalytic transformation of cellulose into useful platform chemicals. The chapter focuses on different strategies to achieve the chemical catalytic conversion of biomass-derived oxygenated feedstocks to value-added chemicals and fuels.