Catalytic transfer hydrogenation (CTH) is recently emerged as a highly attractive approach to achieve biomass-based hydrogenation due to the free of high-pressure fossil-derived H2 and potentially reduced process cost. As...

The establishment of catalyst systems for the chemoselective hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of carboxylic acids to hydrocarbons, such as the HDO of long-chain fatty acids to alkanes, is important for biomass to biofuel conversion. As the most abundant and probably the cheapest transition metal on the earth, iron is a promising non-noble-metal alternative to precious metals for large-scale conversion of biomass. However, it usually suffers from unsatisfactory activity. In this work, a nitrogen-doped carbon–alumina hybrid supported iron (Fe-N-C@Al2O3) catalyst is established for chemoselective HDO of carboxylic acids to hydrocarbons. By using stearic acid HDO as the model reaction, n-octadecane and n-heptadecane are produced with yields of 91.9% and 6.0%, respectively. Triglycerides can also be converted into liquid alkanes with a total molar yield of >92%. In addition, the iron catalyst can chemoselectively catalyze the HDO of the carboxylic acid group in the presence of other functional groups such as an aromatic ring. This chemoselectivity has rarely been seen before because the aromatic ring is usually more easily hydrogenated in comparison to HDO of the carboxylic acid group. The characterization results showed that both the formation of a nitrogen-doped carbon–alumina hybrid and the iron loading are important for the Lewis basicity of these catalysts, in order to adsorb the acid substrates. The addition of melamine as the nitrogen precursor during pyrolysis eliminates undesired reactions between the iron precursor and alumina support to form an inactive hercynite phase, leading to the formation of an Fe3C active phase for the hydrogenation of −COOH to −CH2OH and the hybrid of N–C and alumina for the HDO of −CH2OH to −CH3.

A biphasic system consisting of THF and water was studied to achieve the integrated conversion of cellulose and hemicellulose in lignocellulosic biomass to levulinic acid. As compared to previous studies using GVL as solvent, the utilization of a lower boiling point solvent, THF, also achieves the simultaneous hydrolysis of C 6 and C 5 carbohydrates in lignocellulosic biomass, and the results of simultaneous hydrolysis are comparable. Furthermore, it offers an alternative operation procedure after the hydrolysis. A distillation process is not only used to achieve the effective separation of the solid residue from the desired products, but it also helps in the complete isolation of furfural and formic acid from levulinic acid. Consequently, the utilization of by-product formic acid in the hydrogenation of furfural to furfuryl alcohol is explored, and the process is achieved with both model substrates and the feed from the lignocellulosic biomass feedstock. The hydrolysis of furfuryl alcohol gave C 5 carbohydrate-derived levulinic acid. We finally explored the integrated conversion with five biomass raw materials, and the total yield of levulinic acid was quite obviously promoted by the additional conversion of pentose.

The complete genome of Polaribacter sp. NJDZ03, which was isolated from the surface of Antarctic macroalgae, was analyzed by next-generation sequencing, and a putative carrageenase gene Car3206 was obtained. Car3206 was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli BL21(DE3). After purification by Ni-NTA chromatography, the recombinant Car3206 protein was characterized and the antioxidant activity of the degraded product was investigated. The results showed that the recombinant plasmid pet-30a-car3206 was highly efficiently expressed in E. coli BL21(DE3). The purified recombinant Car3206 showed a single band on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, with an apparent molecular weight of 45 kDa. The optimum temperature of the recombinant Car3206 was 55°C, and it maintain 60–94% of its initial activity for 4–12 h at 55°C. It also kept almost 70% of the initial activity at 30°C, and more than 40% of the initial activity at 10°C. These results show that recombinant Car3206 had good low temperature resistance and thermal stability properties. The optimum pH of recombinant Car3206 was 7.0. Car3206 was activated by Na+, K+, and Ca2+, but was significantly inhibited by Cu2+ and Cr2+. Thin-layer chromatographic analysis indicated that Car3206 degraded carrageenan generating disaccharides as the only products. The antioxidant capacity of the degraded disaccharides in vitro was investigated and the results showed that different concentrations of the disaccharides had similar scavenging effects as vitamin C on O2•-, •OH, and DPPH•. To our knowledge, this is the first report about details of the biochemical characteristics of a carrageenase isolated from an Antarctic Polaribacter strain. The unique characteristics of Car3206, including its low temperature resistance, thermal stability, and product unity, suggest that this enzyme may be an interesting candidate for industrial processes.