Approximately 96% of the organic chemicals currently used are derived from nonrenewable fossil fuels. With a dwindling oil supply, discovering alternative solutions to produce these chemicals is becoming increasingly important. One viable alternative to fossil fuels is to use biomass, a renewable resource, as a chemical feedstock. Biomass offers a carbon neutral source of organic molecules.
Lignocellulosic biomass is primarily composed of three biopolymers: cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin. The majority of biomass polymers, when broken down into their constituents, consist of cellulose-derived sugars of 5 or 6 carbon atoms and lignin-derived aromatic building blocks. These building blocks are relatively highly oxidized and thus, without further chemical conversion, are not well-suited for fuels and chemicals. Therefore, there remains a need for novel products of biomass that can be used as feedstocks for chemical synthesis.