Renewable electricity can be leveraged to produce fuels and chemicals from CO2, offering sustainable routes to reduce the carbon intensity of our energy and products-driven economy.

The drive to reduce consumption of fossil resources, coupled with expanding capacity for renewable electricity, invites the exploration of new routes to utilize this energy for the sustainable production of fuels, chemicals, and materials. Biomass represents a possible source of platform precursors for such commodities due to its inherent ability to fix CO 2 in the form of multi-carbon organic molecules. Electrochemical methods for the valorization of biomass are thus intriguing, but there is a need to objectively evaluate this field and define the opportunity space by identifying pathways suited to electrochemistry. In this contribution we offer a comprehensive, critical review of recent advances in lowtemperature (liquid phase), electrochemical reduction and oxidation of biomass-derived intermediates (polyols, furans, carboxylic acids, amino acids, and lignin), with emphasis on identifying the state-of-the-art for each documented reaction. Progress in computational modeling is also reviewed. We further suggest a number of possible reactions that have not yet been explored but which are expected to proceed based on established routes to transform specific functional groups. We conclude with a critical discussion of technological challenges for scale-up, fundamental research needs, process intensification opportunities (e.g., by pairing compatible oxidations and reductions), and new benchmarking standards that will be necessary to accelerate progress toward application in this still-nascent field.

Low temperature atmospheric pressure plasma (produced by a 250 mW pulsed gliding arc discharge) with water spray was utilized to inactivate bacteria colonies of Escherichia coli grown on the surface of an agar substrate. The pH, solution conductivity, H2O2, and nitrate concentrations were determined for air and argon carrier gases and different water flow rates. Control experiments conducted by spraying solutions of H2O2 in the absence of the discharge demonstrated that this chemical and its delivery by spraying account for approximately two to three orders of magnitude (depending upon bacterial loading) of the bacterial colony decontamination process for both carrier gases when bacteria are allowed to grow on the agar plate to form a biofilm. Reactive species or other factors arising from the gas flow from the plasma with the water spray caused bacteria inactivation of one to two orders of magnitude beyond those of spraying H2O2 alone.magnified image