Ligno-cellulosic biomass from agricultural and forest residues is an alternative to chemicals and fuels production, minimizing our dependence on fossil raw materials. However, nowadays the processes for the valorization of biomass are more expensive than the conventional petrochemical processes. For this reason, we think it is a major challenge for chemists to develop efficient catalytic routes to convert biomass and/or its derivatives into chemical products of industrial interest. In this doctoral thesis, solid catalysts based on different metals (i.e. Pd, Pt, and Ru) supported on metal oxides with different chemical and surface properties (i.e. Al2O3, ZrO2, MgO, etc.) were developed. These materials were applied to the study of catalytic processes, to carry out different transformations of biomass derived-compounds through cascade reactions, thus obtaining high added-value chemical products. The studied transformations of biomass derived-compounds included platform compounds derived from fractions with a high content of cellulose and hemi-cellulose (i.e. furfural and 2-methyl furan) as well as those derived from lignin-rich fractions. For the furfural hydrogenation process, it was determined that the supported Pt-based catalysts were highly selective to furfuryl alcohol independently the type of catalyst support. On the other hand, excellent yields to tetrahydro-furfuryl alcohol were obtained by using Ru/Al2O3 and Ru/ZrO2 catalysts. Best results were attained with the later catalyst, also showing great stability with re-uses, even in aqueous reaction media. Furthermore, it has been shown that the different polymorphs presented by the ZrO2 have an influence on the catalytic activity of these materials. For the reductive-etherification process of furfural with various alcohols (i.e. butanol, pentanol, etc.) through a cascade-type reactive process, catalysts based on Pd supported on different metal oxides were developed. The best results were reached with Pd/ZrO2 and Pd/TiO2, which were active and high selective for the synthesis of furfuryl ethers, compounds having application as fuel additives. Starting from another furanic-derivative (i.e. 2-methyl furan), it was developed a hydrolysis/condensation process using ionic exchange polymeric resin as a solid acid catalyst in combination with a green reagent/solvent system (2-MF/water-ethanol), which has advantages over previously reported processes that use mineral or organic acids. The products obtained through this process are interesting intermediates for the production of hydrocarbons in the range of diesel fuels. Finally, has been studied the catalytic transformation of phenolic compounds derived from lignin into an aqueous mixture, through the hydrogenation/hydrodeoxygenation process catalyzed by Pd, Pt and Ru based materials supported over different metal oxides. It has been demonstrated that the hydrodeoxygenation capacity of these materials shows to be dependent on the type of metal and the type of catalyst support. The Ru and Pd catalysts have reached the best yield for hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) products; additionally, those materials have shown activity for the upgrading of an organic fraction derived from lignin depolymerization process, with good yields to phenolic monomers and C6-C8 alcohols. Summarizing, the work here developed shows how through the study of different solid multifunctional catalysts, and working under suitable reaction conditions, catalytic processes can be developed to transform biomass-derived platform compounds into a series of chemical products with diverse and interesting applications. TESIS