Aromatic compounds are important building blocks for many chemicals and polymers as well as components of fuel compositions. Furans, with their dienic structure, can replace aromatic compounds in several applications including polymers (e. g. Poly Ethylene Terephthalate by Poly Ethylene Furanoate), fuels (diesel) and pharmaceu­ticals (de Jong et al., 2012a; de Jong et al., 2013; Van Putten
et al., 2013a). In this paragraph we will discuss the forma­tion of furans from carbohydrates and the formation of aromatic compounds from lignin as an example how all major components of lignocellulosic biomass can be valorized by chemocatalytic routes. Some of the most important chemical transformations of carbohydrates are arguably the hydrolysis and subsequent dehydration of polysaccharides into the furan platform products, furfural and HMF (Dias et al., 2010; Van Putten et al., 2013a, b). Furfural has a wide industrial application pro­file and is considered as one of the top 30 building blocks that can be produced from biomass (Dias et al., 2010; Van Putten et al., 2013b; Lange et al., 2012; Bozell and Petersen, 2010; Zeitsch, 2000a; Hoydonckx et al., 2007). HMF is promising as a versatile, renewable furan chem­ical for the production of chemicals, polymers and bio­fuels, similar to furfural (Van Putten et al., 2013a; Bozell and Petersen, 2010). While furfural has been produced on an industrial scale for decades (Dias et al., 2010; Van Putten et al., 2013b), the production of HMF has not yet reached industrial scale (Van Putten et al., 2013a; Bozell and Petersen, 2010).