To produce fuels and chemical products from biomass feedstocks, new processes capable of selective conversions of highly oxygenated compounds must be developed. The general biorefinery concept requires the production of a set of “building block” compounds from fermentation or chemical treatment of sugars, and the subsequent conversion of these compounds into a variety of value-added derivatives. A major challenge in the design of solid catalysts for these conversions of the relevant building blocks is that these oxygenated molecules contain multiple functional groups that may interact with the catalyst surface, causing problems in achieving selective conversion at a single position on the building block molecule. Related processes are of importance in the fine chemicals industry. We have investigated the adsorption and reaction of several model multifunctional oxygenates (including unsaturated oxygenates and polyols) on the (111) surface of Pd and Pt using a combination of surface spectroscopies and density functional theory calculations. This contribution will focus on the detailed surface reaction mechanisms observed on the two surfaces and on possible methods by which more selective catalysts may be designed for these applications.