Reaction pathways and selectivity in chemo-catalytic conversion of biomass-derived carbohydrates to high-value chemicals: A review

Carbohydrates from terrestrial or marine biomass are the most potential feedstocks for sustainable refinery industries. Chemo-catalytic conversion of carbohydrates involves multiple reaction pathways, which provide various options to produce valuable chemicals. Catalysts have been known to play key role on determining the reaction selectivity. As such, it is important to understand the catalysis reaction routes and mechanistic aspects in the carbohydrates conversions. Herein, the states of the-art on the chemo-catalytic conversions of biomass-derived carbohydrates to high value-added chemicals is reviewed. Firstly, the mechanistic aspects of chemocatalysis processes of cellulosic-based sugars such as depolymerization, isomerization, epimerization, retro-aldol and reduction/oxidation are introduced and discussed. Then, the roles of heterogeneous catalysts in the cascade reactions of cellulose are analyzed. It is expected to provide a guidance to design effective chemo-catalytic processes for the selective production of high value-added chemicals from the biomass-derived carbohydrates.