Biocatalysis has become a cornerstone of sustainable synthesis, offering highly selective and resource-efficient transformations under mild, aqueous conditions. While its application in the synthesis of pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals is well established, the sustainability of such processes critically depends on the origin of the starting materials. In this context, the use of renewable feedstocks presents a compelling opportunity to align biocatalytic processes with green chemistry principles. This review examines recent advances in the enzymatic valorization of biomass-derived carbon sources performed in an aqueous environment, with a particular focus on phenolic compounds as lignin-derived aromatics, furan-based platform chemicals, and terpenes. Current approaches target a narrow range of products and predominantly rely on redox biotransformations. Key future directions for expanding the chemical space accessible from renewable feedstocks include the development of efficient depolymerization strategies for recalcitrant biopolymers and the optimization of industrially relevant metrics such as product titers and process robustness. • Vanillin can be obtained from several biomass-derived aromatics via multi-step enzymatic routes • Furan-based feedstocks provide access to key polymer building blocks via enzymatic oxidation and amination • Unspecific peroxygenases provide a straightforward catalytic approach for the oxygenation of terpenes • Gram-scale enzymatic synthesis in water with productivity up to 1 g L -1 h -1 is available for several target molecules.
Galluzzo et al. (Fri,) studied this question.