This book provides state-of-the-art reviews, current research, prospects and challenges of the production of biofuels and chemicals such as furanic biofuels, biodiesel, carboxylic acids, polyols and others from lignocellulosic biomass, furfurals, syngas and -valerolactone with bifunctional catalysts, including catalytic, and combined biological and chemical catalysis processes. The bifunctionality of catalytic materials is a concept of not only using multifunctional solid materials as activators, but also design of materials in such a way that the catalytic materials have synergistic characteristics that promote a cascade of transformations with performance beyond that of mixed mono-functional catalysts. This book is a reference designed for researchers, academicians and industrialists in the area of catalysis, energy, chemical engineering and biomass conversion. Readers will find the wealth of information contained in chapters both useful and essential, for assessing the production and application of various biofuels and chemicals by chemical catalysis and biological techniques.

Dr. Zhen Fang is Professor in Bioenergy, Leader and founder of biomass group, College of Engineering, Nanjing Agricultural University, China.

Dr. Richard L Smith, Jr. is Professor of Chemical Engineering, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Research Center of Supercritical Fluid Technology, Tohoku University, Japan.

Dr. Hu Li is Researcher in biofuel and catalyst synthesis, biomass group, College of Engineering, Nanjing Agricultural University, China.

Fundamentals of bifunctional catalysis for transforming biomass-related compounds into chemicals and biofuels.- Characterization methods for heterogeneous catalysts and their application to cellulose conversion mechanisms.- Brønsted-Lewis acids for efficient conversion of renewables.- Design of bifunctional solid catalysts for conversion of biomass-derived syngas into biofuels.- Reductive conversion of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural in aqueous solutions by furan ring opening and rearrangement.- Catalytic cascade transformations of biomass into polyols.-  Production and upgrading of -valerolactone with bifunctional catalytic processes.- Production of furanic biofuels with zeolite and metal oxide bifunctional catalysts for energy- and product-driven biorefineries.- Upgrading of biomass-derived furans into value-added chemicals.- Production of biodiesel via simultaneous esterification and transesterification.- Biodiesel production from waste oil in multiphase reactors with bifunctional catalystfor sustainable energy.- Conversion of biomass using simultaneous chemo- and bio-catalysis.