Solid
acid catalysts alone or in combination with redox metals
play a pivotal role in biomass valorization to obtain alternative
fuels and chemicals. In acid-catalyzed biomass conversions, water
is a key reagent/byproduct
that can induce leaching/poisoning of catalyst’s acid species,
a major problem toward catalyst recyclability and product purification.
Thus, developing efficient water-tolerant solid acid catalysts is
vital for viable biomass valorization. TiO2 is considered
to be a promising water-tolerant solid acid catalyst for biomass conversions
because of the presence of coordinatively unsaturated Ti4+ sites, which are robust and less prone to leaching in the aqueous
medium. Besides, the synergistic combination of TiO2 with
redox metals (Ru, Pd, Ni, Cu, etc.) provides abundant bifunctional
acid-redox sites, which exhibit a favorable catalytic role in the
deoxygenation of biomass molecules to practically useful hydrocarbons.
Therefore, this review provides an overview of recent progress toward
TiO2-based water-tolerant acid catalysis for biomass conversion,
with a focus on hydrothermal stability of TiO2, its acidity,
and catalysts’ synthesis methods. Various biomass conversions
over TiO2-based catalysts, where water-tolerant acid sites
or acid-redox dual sites show a significant catalytic effect, were
discussed. Structure–activity relationships based on water-tolerant
Lewis acidity of TiO2 were emphasized. We believe that
this review will provide valuable information for developing efficient
water-tolerant solid acid catalysts not only for biomass valorization
but also for other challenging reactions in the aqueous medium.