Biomass conversion into useful chemicals, materials and fuels emerged as a promising alternative toward replacing the current production of most of these commodities and specialty products from petroleum feedstocks. Interestingly, not only end products but also side-products from biomass valorization have a significant potential for future research and further conversion into novel families of useful derivatives. Based on such potential, the proposed contribution has been aimed to focus on catalytic insights into the production of three particular biomass-derived side products from the hemicellulosic fraction, namely methyl levulinate (MeL), Furfural and Humins using both homogeneous and heterogeneously catalyzed processes. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.