This chapter describes some of the contemporary methods for the chemi­cal analysis of biomass-derived chemicals. All available methods could not have been treated in this review, therefore the focus was mainly on chromatographic methods. A more comprehensive overview of analytical methods was published several years ago by one of the authors [31,33]. In the current work, detailed procedures were discussed for only a few cases as the emphasis was laid more on general approaches.

The analytical procedure depends very much on the objective of a par­ticular study as well as the available resources in terms of instruments, time, costs and human skills.

The main hurdles on the way toward the development of a reliable analytical method for a particular application are associated with a lack of time to check methods described in literature, a certain trust in already published procedures, even if they are far from being perfect, as well as a pressure from granting agencies/sponsors to get “real” catalytic results rather than means to develop or check analytical methods. In the latter case there is certainly more glory in developing new methods compared to just checking the old ones.

Finally, we should stress that no single method works perfectly for all kinds of samples. Moreover, dubious methods are sometimes presented in literature, which means that the results are not reliable. It can thus be emphasized once more that improving analytical methods, not only in the particular case of the catalytic transformation of biomass, but in general improves the quality of science.