One-pot production of hydrocarbon oil from poly(3-hydroxybutyrate)

Abstract

Decarboxylation of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) in a H3PO4 solution generates a renewable hydrocarbon oil.

Biomediated production of structurally diverse poly(hydroxyalkanoates) from surplus streams of the animal processing industry

“…Such low-quality mcl-PHA is accessible from the conversion of carbon-rich waste water samples by mixed bacterial cultures and this displays insufficient quality to be used as plasticof rubber-like material [67,68]. Similar attempts were recently reported by Kang and Yu [69], who chemically converted PHB to produce hydrocarbon oil in one-pot reactions at a mild temperature (around 220°C) using phosphoric acid as recyclable catalyst. This might be a future possibility to use spent items made of scl-PHA as an alternative to their anaerobic digestion to biogas or to composting.…”

Reaction routes in catalytic reforming of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) into renewable hydrocarbon oil

“…In the reaction catalyzed with H 3 PO 4 , PHB was completely converted and deoxygenated to a great extent with formation of CO 2 and propylene (C 3 H 6 ), and more interestingly with formation of substantial amount of aromatic compounds. 5 We found that crotonic acid (CA, trans-2 butenoic acid, C 4 H 6 O 2 ), was a key monomeric intermediate in the early stage of PHB conversion. Under typical reaction conditions (100% H 3 PO 4 solution, 220 C and 3 hours), CA was completely converted and 90.9% of the original carbon was recovered from the gas and liquid products.…”

A gasoline-grade biofuel formed from renewable polyhydroxybutyrate on solid phosphoric acid

“…It has been reported that PHB reforming in phosphoric acid solutions (80-100%) occurs in a temperature range between 200 and 240°C [20,21], but it is not clear what is the lowest temperature or temperature range in which the reaction can occur on SPA catalyst. DSC analysis of a crude PHB and SPA420 mixture (mass ratio 1:1) revealed the interesting information as shown in Fig.…”

“…According to our previous work using liquid phosphoric acid as the catalyst [20,21], a high concentration of acid is needed for the catalytic reforming of PHB. In this work, a broad range of the catalyst to PHB ratio was investigated.…”

“…Under controlled conditions, the microbes can accumulate up to 80% of PHB in dry cell mass [19]. Recently, we reported that PHB could be conveniently reformed into hydrocarbon oil in aqueous phosphoric acid solutions (50-100% H 3 PO 4 ) at mild temperatures (200-240°C) [20]. It was also found out that water was a byproduct of PHB deoxygenation and hence water might affect the yield and composition of hydrocarbon oil [21].…”