1 © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd Review Correspondence to: Laura G. Covinich, Programa de Celulosa y Papel (PROCYP), Instituto de Materiales de Misiones (Universidad Nacional de Misiones, UNaM – Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científcas y Técnicas, CONICET), Posadas, Argentina. E-mail: lgcovinich@gmail.com The challenge of converting biomass polysacharides into levulinic acid through heterogeneous catalytic processes Laura G. Covinich , Nicolás M. Clauser , Fernando E. Felissia, María E. Vallejos, María C. Area, Programa de Celulosa y Papel (PROCYP), Instituto de Materiales de Misiones (Universidad Nacional de Misiones, UNaM – Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científcas y Técnicas, CONICET), Posadas, Argentina Received May 08 2019; Revised September 17 2019; Accepted September 27 2019; View online at Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com); DOI: 10.1002/bbb.2062; Biofuels. Bioprod. Bioref. (2019) Abstract: The differences between a biorefnery and an oil refnery are determined by the higher oxygen content of the biorefnery’s biomass, its high degree of functionalization, its low thermal stability, its polar components, which are mostly acidic, its highly heterogeneous structure, and its quality variation as result of genotypic and phenotypic characteristics. Levulinic acid (LA) is one of the main high value-added chemicals that can be produced from lignocellulosic biomass as raw material. The main challenges for the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to levulinic acid are related to the improvement of the technologies to obtain a pure and cost-competitive product, the design and use of effcient heterogeneous catalysts, and the improvements in the selectivity and useful life of the catalyst. This is an up-to-date review of the state of knowledge about the heterogeneous catalytic conversion of biomass into LA, addressing the technical hurdles that impede the attainment of high yields. This work outlines the chemistry of LA synthesis and discusses in detail the infuence of the lignocellulosic raw material, reaction time, temperature, solvent according to the chemical pathway, and effciency of the chosen Lewis and Brønsted solid acid catalysts. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Keywords: Lewis and Brønsted solid acid; levulinic acid; hydroxymethylfurfural; chemical pathways; heterogeneous catalyst