The use of carbon-based catalysts
to catalyze the hydrothermal
conversion of biomass and its derived carbohydrates to produce platform
compounds such as 5-(hydroxymethyl)furfural (HMF), levulinic acid
(LA), and furfural (FF) has a long history. The excellent thermal
stability and chemical activity and low preparation cost of carbon-based
catalysts make them develop rapidly in catalytic hydrothermal conversion,
which is the core attention in the review. Carbon catalysts are divided
into sulfuric acid-based carbon catalysts, phosphoric acid-based carbon
catalysts, metal-supported carbon catalysts and other types of carbon
catalysts, to study their application to hydrothermal decomposition
of monosaccharides, disaccharides, polysaccharides, and biomass. The
characteristics of different types of carbon catalysts were introduced.
The diversified development of carbon-based catalysts and the upgrading
of feedstocks have promoted the improvement of product selectivity,
cost, and energy optimization, realizing the transformation of hydrothermal
decomposition of biomass into a greener process. However, the development
of efficient catalytic systems for hydrothermal conversion of abundant,
cheap, and readily available biomass sources is still an ideal choice
to expand the process strategy.