Sustainable Carbon Sources and Renewable Energy: Challenges and Opportunities at the Interface of Catalysis and Reaction Engineering

Abstract

Limited fossil resources and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions require the development of environmentally benign production processes. Economic, energy and carbon‐efficient value chains based on lignocellulosic biomass are essential for a sustainable and potentially CO2‐neutral chemical industry. Biomass presents a concentrated renewable carbon source for base and fine chemicals, polymers and liquid fuels of high energy density. Research studies have highlighted the need for novel process concepts to account for the high degree of functionality of lignocellulosic biomass. Major challenges include selective deoxygenation of the highly functionalized starting materials, energy‐intensive separation and processes bridging chemo‐catalysis, biotechnology and electro‐catalysis. In the following, these challenges are exemplarily discussed. The showcases are selected to illustrate concepts and not meant to provide a comprehensive overview of the field.

Transition metal-catalyzed deoxydehydration: missing pieces of the puzzle

“…Finally, recent reviews of bio-refining have incorporated DODH. Dutta chose DODH as one reaction in a Highlights article; 50 Mika et al 51 included DODH in a discussion of the role of water in biomass conversion, and Palkovits 52 presented it as a young deoxygenation method in an article on concepts and challenges in biomass conversion. DODH has been reviewed in conjunction with several platform molecules: Wozniak et al 53 listed DODH as one method to convert 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, Khalil et al 54 integrated DODH into an article on muconic acid as a platform molecule, Tamura et al 55 briefly mentions DODH in a perspective on exploiting the asymmetric carbons in sugars, and Nakagawa et al 56 dedicated a section to DODH in a mini-review on erythritol.…”

W exsolution promotes the in situ reconstruction of a NiW electrode with rich active sites for the electrocatalytic oxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF)

“…Carbon-based platforms originating from renewable biomass could potentially serve as a substitute and sustainable feedstock for a significant portion of the fossil-based energy structure and chemical industry. 1 Among all the biomass resources, HMF, featuring a furan ring armed with both alcohol and aldehyde side groups, is a versatile intermediate that can be transformed into various more stable derivatives and value-added products. 2 Especially, its oxidation product, FDCA, has been listed as one of the top 12 valuable biochemicals by U.S. DOE.…”