Catalytic conversion of biomass: challenges and issues

There are strong incentives to develop the production of fuels, chemicals and materials from biomass. However, the extensive use of biomass for industrial production, particularly for biofuels which involves high tonnages, raises environmental and ethical issues that may throw some doubts on the sustainability of these processes. The processing cost of biomass must be decreased by designing new processing routes and catalytic systems because those employed for hydrocarbons are not adapted to the molecular structure of biomolecules. To avoid competition with food supply, lignocellulosic feedstocks should be used rather than traditional agricultural crops particularly for biofuel production. Life-cycle assessment, which takes into account all the inputs and outputs of a process/product, should be carried out to evaluate the environmental impact of processes and used as a decision-making tool for product development.