NOVELTY - Preparing liquid fuel and chemical intermediates from biomass-derived oxygenated hydrocarbons, involves reacting in a single reactor an aqueous solution of a biomass-derived, water-soluble oxygenated hydrocarbon reactant, in the presence of catalyst comprising metal at temperature and pressure, to yield self-separating, three-phase product stream comprising vapor phase, organic phase comprising linear/cyclic mono-oxygenated hydrocarbons and an aqueous phase.    USE - For preparing liquid fuel and chemical intermediates (claimed) used in existing transportation vehicles utilizing internal combustion engines; and to generate fuel source, such as hydrocarbons including such as butane, pentane, hexane, butanol, pentanol, hexanol, butanone, pentanone and hexanone; mono-functional, oxygen-containing intermediates such as (un)substituted tetrahydrofurans, tetrahydropyrans and carboxylic acids, and solvents (ketones or alcohols).    ADVANTAGE - The method is single-reactor process for producing liquid-phase organic compounds from biomass, and is economical. In the method, carbohydrates from biomass are converted to liquid alkanes via a cascade approach using a limited number of catalytic reactors or beds (preferably two), without the need for complex separation and/or purification steps between catalysts. The liquid alkane products produced by the method can be processed and distributed by existing petrochemical technologies and infrastructure. The oxygenated hydrocarbon reactants can be produced from renewable resources, such as biomass; thus the method can be used to generate a fuel source, such as hydrocarbons, as well as valuable mono-functional, oxygen-containing intermediates and solvents (ketones or alcohols) from an abundant and fully renewable source. Because living plant matter consumes carbon dioxide, the use of these feedstocks in power generation applications does not result in a net increase of carbon dioxide vented to the atmosphere.    DETAILED DESCRIPTION - Preparing liquid fuel and chemical intermediates from biomass-derived oxygenated hydrocarbons, involves reacting in a single reactor an aqueous solution of a biomass-derived, water-soluble oxygenated hydrocarbon reactant, in the presence of a catalyst comprising a metal at a temperature and a pressure, to yield a self-separating, three-phase product stream comprising a vapor phase, an organic phase comprising linear/cyclic mono-oxygenated hydrocarbons and an aqueous phase, where the metal selected from chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), manganese (Mn), molybdenum (Mo), nickel (Ni), iron (Fe), cobalt (Co), technetium (Tc), ruthenium (Ru), rhodium (Rh), rhenium (Re), tungsten (W), silver (Ag), gold (Au), palladium (Pd), platinum (Pt), osmium (Os) or iridium (Ir).