Chemocatalytic Conversion of Cellulose into Key Platform Chemicals

Abstract

Chemocatalytic transformation of lignocellulosic biomass to value-added chemicals has attracted global interest in order to build up sustainable societies. Cellulose, the first most abundant constituent of lignocellulosic biomass, has received extensive attention for its comprehensive utilization of resource, such as its catalytic conversion into high value-added chemicals and fuels (e.g., HMF, DMF, and isosorbide). However, the low reactivity of cellulose has prevented its use in chemical industry due to stable chemical structure and poor solubility in common solvents over the cellulose. Recently, homogeneous or heterogeneous catalysis for the conversion of cellulose has been expected to overcome this issue, because various types of pretreatment and homogeneous or heterogeneous catalysts can be designed and applied in a wide range of reaction conditions. In this review, we show the present situation and perspective of homogeneous or heterogeneous catalysis for the direct conversion of cellulose into useful platform chemicals.

Recent Advances in Ruthenium-Catalyzed Hydrogenation Reactions of Renewable Biomass-Derived Levulinic Acid in Aqueous Media

“…Moreover, the use of biomass is associated with further economic, environmental, social, health and safety benefits which are based, inter alia, on the renewable nature of biomass, contrasted to the nature of fossil raw materials which possess a limited capacity in the domestic production of biofuels, and thus on the country's independence from fossil feedstocks, on the profits of local agriculture, on the implementations of financial incentives, and on biodegradability and biocompatibility, as well as on the mechanical and physicochemical properties of biomass-based products. The high potential of biomass is even more remarkable when one considers that the nature's global biomass production capacity is huge, namely about 2.0•10 11 t/a compared to only 7•10 9 t/a of all extracted fossil fuels, and furthermore that only 3.3% of the annual biomass production capacity is used for food, feed, and non-food applications (Van Bekkum and Gallezot, 2004;Sheldon, 2014;Li et al, 2018;Badgujar et al, 2020). Biomass consists of about 75% carbohydrates, 20% lignin, and 5% triglycerides, i.e., fats and oils, terpenes and proteins (Sheldon, 2014).…”

The challenge of converting biomass polysaccharides into levulinic acid through heterogeneous catalytic processes

“…A strategy to improve hydrolysis yields therefore consists of its combination with other hydrophilic functional groups responsible for the adsorption of β 1‐4 glycosidic bonds . These groups, which promote a synergistic effect, could be OH or COOH . Both have a remarkable capacity to generate powerful hydrogen bonds with carbohydrates and retain them so that the SO 3 H groups are allowed to produce the cleavage of the bonds .…”

Reaction Kinetics of One-Pot Xylan Conversion to Xylitol via Precious Metal Catalyst

“…One-pot conversion of lignocellulosic biomass into alkylcyclohexane and polyols using Ru/C and H2 in water was reported by Wang et al (Li et al, 2018).…”

“…The yield of liquid alkylcyclohexanes based on the lignin contained in the substrate was 97.2 wt%. The authors underline the important role of the synergetic effect between Ru and RuO2 on the Ru/C catalyst for the catalysis (Li et al, 2018).…”