The efficient utilization of biomass resources has garnered substantial research interest as a strategic approach to mitigate reliance on fossil fuels and achieve waste valorization. Furfural (FFA), a renewable biomass-derived platform compound, offers an environmentally benign pathway for producing oxygenated value-added chemicals such as cyclopentanone (CPO) and cyclopentanol (CPL) through hydrogenative rearrangement, thereby offering an alternative to conventional petroleum-based decarboxylative cyclization methods. Over the past decade, significant research efforts have been dedicated to optimizing the catalytic hydrogenation and rearrangement of FFA into CPO/CPL, with a focus on enhancing catalytic efficiency, product selectivity, cost competitiveness, and environmental sustainability. This review systematically discusses the structural characteristics, catalytic performances, and reaction mechanisms of diverse metal-based catalysts, with particular emphasis on how active sites modulate reaction pathways and reaction mechanism. Furthermore, the key innovations in catalyst engineering are analyzed and the promising pathways to design catalytic systems combining high activity, selectivity, and stability for sustainable FFA upgrading into CPO/CPL are proposed.

Recent advances in the hydrogenative rearrangement of furfural into cyclopentanone and cyclopentanol
    Abstract
    1 Introduction
    2 Hydrogenative rearrangement of FFA to CPO
        2.1 Pd-based catalysts
        2.2 Ni-based catalysts
        2.3 Cu-based catalysts
        2.4 Bimetallic catalysts
        2.5 Key intermediate controversy: HCP vs. 2-CPE?
    3 Hydrogenative rearrangement of FFA to CPL
        3.1 Co-based catalysts
        3.2 Bimetallic catalysts
    4 Summary and outlook
    References

• Qingwei Meng(Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Resources Biorefinery, School of Chemical Engineering and Light Industry, Guangdong University of Technology (GDUT), 100 Waihuan Xi Road, Panyu District, Guangzhou 510006, China)
• Xin Li(Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Resources Biorefinery, School of Chemical Engineering and Light Industry, Guangdong University of Technology (GDUT), 100 Waihuan Xi Road, Panyu District, Guangzhou 510006, China)
• Wenhui Zhang(Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Resources Biorefinery, School of Chemical Engineering and Light Industry, Guangdong University of Technology (GDUT), 100 Waihuan Xi Road, Panyu District, Guangzhou 510006, China)
• Fucheng Chen(Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Resources Biorefinery, School of Chemical Engineering and Light Industry, Guangdong University of Technology (GDUT), 100 Waihuan Xi Road, Panyu District, Guangzhou 510006, China)
• Jinliang Song(Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Resources Biorefinery, School of Chemical Engineering and Light Industry, Guangdong University of Technology (GDUT), 100 Waihuan Xi Road, Panyu District, Guangzhou 510006, China)
• Tiejun Wang(Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Resources Biorefinery, School of Chemical Engineering and Light Industry, Guangdong University of Technology (GDUT), 100 Waihuan Xi Road, Panyu District, Guangzhou 510006, China)
• Chengwu Qiu(BYD Auto Industry Co., Ltd, No.3009, BYD Road, Shenzhen 518100, China) Corresponding author