The transformation of renewable biomass resources into a variety of chemicals and fuels via biomass-derived platform molecules has recently attracted increasing attention from industrial and academic communities. Of numerous platform molecules, γ-valerolactone (GVL) is able to be employed as a sustainable starting material that can be used to produce carbon-based chemicals and energy, which thus is considered as one of the most promising biomass-derived platform molecules. This paper mainly introduces and summarizes research advances on the downstream applications of GVL which have been made in the last decade, including employing GVL as a green solvent and employing GVL as a starting material to produce carbon-based chemicals, polymers and liquid hydrocarbon fuels. The perspective of GVL is also suggested in this review.

Contents
1 Introduction
2 Employing GVL as a green solvent
3 Synthesis of carbon-based chemicals from GVL
4 Synthesis of polymeric materials from GVL
5 Synthesis of liquid hydrocarbon fuels from GVL
6 Conclusion