Dehydration of biomass-derived levulinic acid under solid acid catalysis and treatment of the resulting angelica lactone with catalytic K2 CO3 produces the angelica lactone dimer in excellent yield. This dimer serves as a novel feedstock for hydrodeoxygenation, which proceeds under relatively mild conditions with a combination of oxophilic metal and noble metal catalysts to yield branched C7 -C10 hydrocarbons in the gasoline volatility range. Considering that levulinic acid is available in >80 % conversion from raw biomass, a field-to-tank yield of drop-in, cellulosic gasoline of >60 % is possible.

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A simple, non-fermentative, high-yielding, metal-free, chemical-catalytic pathway to succinic acid from biomass-derived levulinic acid is reported.

2,5-Dimethylfuran (DMF) is one of the most actively pursued biomass-derived chemicals due to the fact that it can serve both as a biofuel and an intermediate for drop-in terephthalate polymers. DMF can be accessed via catalytic hydrogenation of 5-(hydroxymethyl)furfural (HMF), but the difficult accessibility of HMF from cellulosic biomass is a major impediment to the commercial development of such a process. Alternatively, 5-(chloromethyl)furfural (CMF) is freely accessible in high yield directly from raw biomass and is shown here to be efficiently reduced to DMF under mild conditions via simple derivatives (aldimine, acetal).

Biomass-derived CMF is oxidized to the acid chloride CMFCC in a single step using inexpensive t-butyl hypochlorite. Likewise, DFF, also a CMF derivative, is oxidized directly to the diacid chloride FDCC. The products are platforms for a variety of chemical derivatives of carbohydrates.

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Prothrin, a synthetic pyrethroid insecticide, was synthesized from the biomass-derived platform chemical 5-(chloromethyl)furfural in six steps and overall 65% yield. Two structural analogues of prothrin were also prepared following the same synthetic approach. Preliminary testing of these furan-based pyrethroids against the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti indicates promising insecticidal activities.