Recent Advances in Metallic Catalyst Materials for Electrochemical Upgrading of Furfurals to Drop-in Biofuels: A Mini Review

Electro-organic synthesis is an ecologically benign and cost-effective technique. Among other purposes, it can be used to produce a broad spectrum of biofuels for aviation applications. Metallic electrocatalyst materials employed for electro-organic synthesis enable the conversion of biomass derived furfural compounds to various furanic biofuels. Each metallic catalyst material has its own inherent characteristics of generating specific amounts of fine chemicals and fuel components. By and large, furanic biofuels produced using metallic catalyst materials are favored explicitly under acidic or mildly acidic electrolytes. Therefore, it is intriguing to understand the nature of different catalyst materials that are compatible with acidic electrolytes. Herein, the focus will be on the recent progress in the field of electro-organic synthesis of furanic fuels under acidic conditions. This review provides an overview of electrocatalytic conversion, its fundamentals, the reaction pathways observed during conversion, and the importance of metallic catalyst materials. Subsequently, the role of noble and nonnoble metallic catalysts on the electrocatalytic transformation of furfural compounds to various biofuels in acidic environment is discussed. In the end, perspectives are presented with regard to the challenges associated with the current technology and possible ways to look ahead to scale up the current technology.