It is imperative to develop more efficient processes for conversion of biomass to liquid fuels, such that the cost of these fuels would be competitive with the cost of fuels derived from petroleum. We report a catalytic approach for the conversion of carbohydrates to specific classes of hydrocarbons for use as liquid transportation fuels, based on the integration of several flow reactors operated in a cascade mode, where the effluent from the one reactor is simply fed to the next reactor. This approach can be tuned for production of branched hydrocarbons and aromatic compounds in gasoline, or longer-chain, less highly branched hydrocarbons in diesel and jet fuels. The liquid organic effluent from the first flow reactor contains monofunctional compounds, such as alcohols, ketones, carboxylic acids, and heterocycles, that can also be used to provide reactive intermediates for fine chemicals and polymers markets.

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Global warming issues and the medium-term depletion of fossil fuel reserves are stimulating researchers around the world to find alternative sources of energy and organic carbon. Biomass is considered by experts the only sustainable source of energy and organic carbon for our industrial society, and it has the potential to displace petroleum in the production of chemicals and liquid transportation fuels. However, the transition from a petroleum-based economy to one based on biomass requires new strategies since the petrochemical technologies, well-developed over the last century, are not valid to process the biomass-derived compounds. Unlike petroleum feedstocks, biomass derived platform molecules possess a high oxygen content that gives them low volatility, high solubility in water, high reactivity and low thermal stability, properties that favour the processing of these resources by catalytic aqueous-phase technologies at moderate temperatures. This tutorial review is aimed at providing a general overview of processes, technologies and challenges that lie ahead for a range of different aqueous-phase transformations of some of the key biomass-derived platform molecules into liquid fuels for the transportation sector and related high added value chemicals.

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