In this paper, plasma conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to high surface area carbons with tunable porosity and their functionalization toward catalyst supports are presented. Specifically, the technique involves mixing biomass with alkali salts and then oxidizing with atmospheric plasma. The biomass conversion process required time scales of less than 2 min compared to hours for the hydrothermal techniques. Furthermore, the resulting high surface area carbons are decorated with ultra-nano particles of platinum using reduction of platinum precursors using hydrogen plasmas. The resulting functionalized carbons loaded with Pt nanoparticles have shown catalytic activity in decarboxylation and further conversion of oleic acid to aromatic and branched hydrocarbons. The catalytic reaction of the resulting Pt nanoparticle loaded high surface area carbon catalyst revealed 100 % conversion of oleic acid with selectivity > 64 % toward C8-C16 hydrocarbons and aromatics, suggesting high catalytic activity of the employed catalyst in decarboxylation reaction of oleic acid.