Electrocatalytic transformation of biosourced organic molecules

Lignocellulosic biomass represents a very huge renewable carbon reservoir to generate derivatives of paramount interest for producing biofuels or value-added chemicals. The main problem to achieve high conversion rate, selectivity and yield from electrooxidation or electrohydrogenation/hydrogenolysis of the raw biopolymers constituting lignocellulosic biomass (lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose) into monomers and oligomers (aromatics, sugars, polyols, acids, furans, etc.) is their low solubility and accessibility to catalysts. The search foralternative bio-sourced media represents an important research axis. Derivatives of these biopolymers are interesting building blocks. But these molecules are very complex in structure and possess different chemical functions making their selective electroconversion difficult. The development of nanostructured catalytic materials adapted for the selective activation/conversion of a given chemical bond/function at lowoverpotentials is a very huge challenge for the future, as well as the design of reactors allowing the conversion of highlyconcentrated solutions, in order to integrate these electrochemical processes in biorefinery.