Metal or Metal-Free Catalysis for the Oxidation of Biosourced Furfural

Green chemistry and sustainable development are becoming increasingly indispensable for finding solutions to climate change, organizing a local circular economy, ensuring energy security, and promoting autonomy based on biosourced raw materials. Lignocellulosic biomass is one of the essential raw materials to produce biofuels and biosourced chemicals that can partially replace fossil resources. The development of conversion technologies for these biosourced products is growing rapidly. Furfural plays a major role as an industrial product derived from this renewable material, sparking interest in efficiently and cleanly transforming it. In this review, we present oxidation transformation methods of furfural into resulting molecules such as furanones, C4 acids, and furoic acid. This is done based on different metallic and metal-free catalytic systems to allow readers to compare their advantages and disadvantages in the perspective of sustainable development.