Reaction Pathways for Synthesis of Four Carbon Chemicals from Sugars and Sugar Derived Platform Chemicals

Abstract Chemicals with a four‐carbon chain (C4 chemicals), like succinic acid, maleic acid, 1,4‐butanediol, and tetrahydrofuran are extensively used as commodity chemicals and polymer precursors. Currently, these chemicals are commercially synthesized from petrochemical based feedstocks. There is a growing interest in catalytic pathways for producing these and other C4 chemicals from biomass. However, biomass is mainly composed of hexose and pentose sugars and the natural abundance of a C4 feedstock is low. This review summarizes the current development in catalytic pathways for C4 chemical synthesis from biomass derived sugars and its derivatives and suggests future direction of research.