Recent achievements in CO2-assisted and CO2-catalyzed biomass conversion reactions

Abstract

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) has attracted great interest as a catalyst and reaction medium for the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass into value-added commodity chemicals. In this review, we focus on the use of CO₂ in the pretreatment of raw biomass (for example, to isolate sugar monomers from the polymeric components of lignocellulosic biomass) and subsequent hydrolysis, as well as in different reactions to yield valuable platform chemicals from feedstocks derived from the raw biomass (e.g., dehydration, hydrogenation, and hydrodeoxygenation). In this respect, this review gives a summary of the enhancement in biomass conversion reactions achievable by utilizing CO₂ and the roles of CO₂ in this enhancement. Recent achievements (mostly in the past five years) in CO₂-catalyzed and CO₂-assisted biomass conversion reactions in various systems are highlighted. The prospect of transforming biomass feedstocks to platform chemicals using CO₂ is also discussed, and important points and challenges facing further research into the CO₂-driven conversion of biomass are highlighted.