Catalytic materials for biofuel conversion

Over the last three decades, there has been a large increase in the production and use of biofuels. This has led researchers to study alternative strategies for converting biofuel energy into electrical energy. This review starts with an introduction to the field, including a brief discussion of the production of common biofuels from a variety of biomass sources. The main focus of the review is on the variety of catalytic materials that have been developed for biofuel conversion of chemical energy to electrical energy. The scope of the article ranges from soft materials (organic and biological catalysts) to metallic catalytic materials to ceramic catalytic materials. The review covers biofuels from biohydrogen to bioethanol to biodiesel to glycerol to glucose. As a critical review, this review describes the state-of-the-art electrocatalysts for biofuel oxidation and provides a critical discussion of the practical properties of desired catalytic materials and areas of need for the coming decade.