With the depletion of fossil energy, liquid biofuels are becoming one of the effective
alternatives to replace fossil fuels. The catalytic transfer and hydrogenation of
biomass-based furanic compounds into fuels and value-added chemicals has become a
spotlight in this field. Gas hydrogen is often used as the H-donor for the hydrogenation
reactions. It is a very straightforward and simple method to implement, but sometimes it
comes with the danger of operation and the difficulty of regulation. In recent years, diverse
liquid hydrogen donor reagents have been employed in the catalytic transfer hydrogenation
(CTH) of biomass. Amongst those H-donors, alcohol is a kind of green and benign
reagent that has been used in different biomass conversion reactions. This type of
reagent is very convenient to use, and the involved operation process is safe, as compared
to that of H2. In this review, the application of alcohols as liquid H-donors in the catalytic transfer hydrogenation
of biomass-derived furanic compounds is depicted, and the representative reaction mechanisms are discussed.
Emphasis is also laid on the selective control of product distribution in the described catalytic systems.
