Lignocellulosic biomass: a sustainable platform for the production of bio-based chemicals and polymers

Conversion of Biomass into Chemicals over Metal Catalysts

Research interest in biomass conversion to fuels and chemicals has increased significantly in the last decade as the necessity for a renewable source of carbon has become more evident. Accordingly, many different reactions and processes to convert biomass into high-value products and fuels have been proposed in the literature. Special attention has been given to the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass, which does not compete with food sources and is widely available as a low cost feedstock. In this review, we start with a brief introduction on lignocellulose and the different chemical structures of its components: cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. These three components allow for the production of different chemicals after fractionation. After a brief overview of the main reactions involved in biomass conversion, we focus on those where bimetallic catalysts are playing an important role. Although the reactions are similar for cellulose and hemicellulose, which contain C6 and C5 sugars, respectively, different products are obtained, and therefore, they have been reviewed separately. The third major fraction of lignocellulose that we address is lignin, which has significant challenges to overcome, as its structure makes catalytic processing more challenging. Bimetallic catalysts offer the possibility of enabling lignocellulosic processing to become a larger part of the biofuels and renewable chemical industry. This review summarizes recent results published in the literature for biomass upgrading reactions using bimetallic catalysts.

Bimetallic catalysts for upgrading of biomass to fuels and chemicals

http://www.chtf.stuba.sk/~szolcsanyi/education/files/Chemia%20heterocyklickych%20zlucenin/Prednaska%207/Doplnkove%20studijne%20materialy/Hydroxymethylfurfural/Conversion%20of%20biomass%20platform%20molecules%20into%20fuel%20additives%20and%20liquid%20hydrocarbon%20fuels.pdf

Conversion of biomass platform molecules into fuel additives and liquid hydrocarbon fuels

The demand for petroleum dependent chemicals and materials has been increasing despite the dwindling of their fossil resources. As the dead-end of petroleum based industry has started to appear, today's modern society has to implement alternative energy and valuable chemical resources immediately. Owing to the importance of lignocellulosic biomass being the most abundant and bio-renewable biomass on earth, this critical review provides insights into the potential of lignocellulosic biomass as an alternative platform to fossil resources. In this context, over 200 value-added compounds, which can be derived from lignocellulosic biomass by various treatment methods, are presented with their references. Lignocellulosic biomass based polymers and their commercial importance are also reported mainly in the frame of these compounds. This review article aims to draw the map of lignocellulosic biomass derived chemicals and their synthetic polymers, and to reveal the scope of this map in today's modern chemical and polymer industry.

The hydrodeoxygenation of furfural has been investigated over three different metal catalysts, Cu, Pd and Ni supported on SiO2, on a continuous-flow reactor under atmospheric pressure of hydrogen in the 210–290 °C temperature range. The distribution of products is a strong function of the metal catalyst used. High selectivity to furfuryl alcohol is obtained over Cu/SiO2, with the formation of only small amounts of 2-methyl furan at the highest reaction temperature studied. In contrast to Cu catalyst, the conversion of furfural over Pd/SiO2 mainly produces furan by decarbonylation. Furan can further react with hydrogen to form tetrahydrofuran (THF). Finally, on Ni/SiO2 catalysts ring opening products (butanal, butanol and butane) can be obtained in significant amounts. The different product distributions are explained in terms of the strength of interaction of the furan ring with the metal surface and the type of surface intermediates that each metal is able to stabilize.

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Hydrodeoxygenation of Furfural Over Supported Metal Catalysts: A Comparative Study of Cu, Pd and Ni

https://www.ou.edu/catalysis/pubs/2011-2.pdf

Kinetics and mechanism of hydrogenation of furfural on Cu/SiO2 catalysts

https://www.ou.edu/catalysis/pubs/2011-9.pdf

Selective conversion of furfural to methylfuran over silica-supported NiFe bimetallic catalysts

https://www.ou.edu/catalysis/pubs/2011-4.pdf

Surapas Sitthisa

Papers

Hydrodeoxygenation of Furfural Over Supported Metal Catalysts: A Comparative Study of Cu, Pd and Ni

Kinetics and mechanism of hydrogenation of furfural on Cu/SiO2 catalysts

Selective conversion of furfural to methylfuran over silica-supported NiFe bimetallic catalysts

Conversion of furfural and 2-methylpentanal on Pd/SiO2 and Pd–Cu/SiO2 catalysts

Structure, activity, and selectivity of bimetallic Pd-Fe/SiO2 and Pd-Fe/γ-Al2O3 catalysts for the conversion of furfural