Biomass Processing via Acid Catalysis

This chapter aims to define efficient methods for the acid-catalyzed conversion of biomass into targeted value-added products. Acid catalysts can be classified as Lewis acids or Brønsted acids and may be further classified as heterogeneous or homogeneous. Polysaccharides, such as glucans and xylans, can be depolymerized into monomer sugars in the presence of Brønsted acid catalysts; such monosaccharides have many applications from organic synthesis to energy sources for fermentation. ionic liquids are a class of green solvents that consist solely of ions and, under certain conditions, are able to fully dissolve cellulosic polysaccharides. The chapter discusses the chemistry accompanying catalytic transformations of carbohydrates and lignin into specific products, defining the overall role of the acidic catalyst, solvent, and processing parameters. In numerous bench-scale processes, acid catalysis has been shown to be a universal tool to source value-added products from reactions of low value or waste cellulosic materials