Efficient Nanocomposite Catalysts for Sustainable Production of Biofuels and Chemicals from Furanics

In recent decade, the depletion of the finite fossil fuels and their consumptions related to environmental concerns have spearheaded the development of alternative routes for the production of energy and chemicals from renewable sources in sustainable manner and without causing a harmful effect to the environment. The biomass is the only organic carbon bearing renewable resource with the potential to produce energy and chemicals in a sustainable manner. The efficient transformation of biomass into biofuels and valued chemicals can take place from thermo-physical and thermo-chemical processes by various catalysts. The biomass-derived furfural and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) are important furanic platform molecules, which can be further catalytically converted to biofuels/fuel additives and chemicals in integrated biorefinery. Hence, the carefully formulated various heterogeneous catalysts are expected to play a pivotal role for the development of green valorization processes of biomass-derived furfural and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural into valued chemicals and advanced biofuels/fuel additives under relatively mild conditions. The valorization processes can involve many types of reactions such as hydrogenation of the C=O bond, hydrogenation of the furan ring, oxidation, amination, condensation, and coupling. For these reactions, the catalytic materials have been classified into two subgroups such as metal and mixed metal oxide-based nanocomposite materials to discuss their physicochemical properties and active sites toward selective transformation of furfural and HMF into the desired products using appropriate references.