For a sustainable chemical industry, the world needs to shift from fossil resources as a feedstock towards renewables feedstocks and recycling of chemicals. Therefore, the workhorse catalysts and processes of the chemical industry need to be rethought. Our research aims at developing new catalysts and investigate new process conditions in order to make the necessary chemical reactions possible and selective. Since the composition of many bio- and recycle streams is often more complex than current hydrocarbon streams, not only selectivity needs to be focused on, but also the development of the necessary separation processes. The modelling and design of these processes requires reliable thermodynamic models, which are currently little available for renewable streams and developing process conditions as supercritical water processes. The development of these thermodynamic models needs to go hand-in-hand with improving the reaction kinetics to ensure a viable renewable processes.