Biomass Conversion and Green Chemistry in Polymer Science II

Dear Colleagues,

Lignocellulosic biomass, which is a type of low-cost, widespread, and renewable biopolymer, is the most abundant organic carbon source and has attracted a great deal of interest as a sustainable feedstock for producing valuable chemicals and biofuels in the presence of well-designed catalytic systems. Despite the great potential of bioderived molecule alternatives to petroleum-based products, the recalcitrant and crystalline structure of renewable biopolymers (e.g., chitosan, lipids, microalgae, and macroalgae) and relevant polymeric components (e.g., polysaccharide and lignin units) hinder their accessibility by either reagents or catalysts. In this regard, a great many efforts have been devoted to executing or facilitating biomass depolymerization and further upgrading processes to specific bioproducts via newly developed conversion routes or bio- and chemocatalytic strategies with high-efficiency functional catalytic materials.

Apart from renewable biomass-based organic carbon feedstocks, waste resources such as plastics and CO2 are also ideal raw materials for producing small molecules, complex organic compounds, functional materials, and liquid fuels. With respect to both biomass and waste valorization, thermo-, photo-, and electrocatalytic approaches have been demonstrated to be efficient and promising for practical applications. Attention is also placed on the improvement of the eco-friendly and clean characteristics of overall conversion processes as well as the explicit understanding of the involved reaction mechanisms. This Special Issue of Polymers invites contributions addressing recent advances or achievements in biomass and waste valorization, including, e.g., biomass pretreatment and depolymerization methods, catalytic strategies or reaction routes developed for biomass and waste conversion, appropriate design, and preparation of functional catalytic materials or polymers, characterization or analysis techniques, and theoretical calculation/simulation for catalytic mechanism elucidation, green conversion processes exploited for scale-up production, etc. The above list is only indicative and by no means exhaustive; recent research articles and reviews dedicated to the catalytic upgrading of renewable and waste resources are welcome.

Prof. Dr. Hu Li
Dr. Junqi Wang
Dr. Jian He
Dr. Hu Pan
Guest Editors

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