Mesoporous Activated Carbon Supported Ru Catalysts to Efficiently Convert Cellulose into Sorbitol by Hydrolytic Hydrogenation

Fatima-Zahra Azar,M Ángeles Lillo-Ródenas,M Carmen Román-Martínez

doi:10.3390/en13174394

Fatima-Zahra Azar, M Ángeles Lillo-Ródenas + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/en13174394

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Journal: Energies	Publication Date: Aug 26, 2020
Citations: 8	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Alicante

Abstract

Catalysts consisting of Ru nanoparticles (1 wt%), supported on mesoporous activated carbons (ACs), were prepared and used in the one-pot hydrolytic hydrogenation of cellulose to obtain sorbitol. The carbon materials used as supports are a pristine commercial mesoporous AC (named SA), and two samples derived from it by sulfonation or oxidation treatments (named SASu and SAS, respectively). The catalysts have been thoroughly characterized regarding both surface chemistry and porosity, as well as Ru electronic state and particle size. The amount and type of surface functional groups in the carbon materials becomes modified as a result of the Ru incorporation process, while a high mesopore volume is preserved upon functionalization and Ru incorporation. The prepared catalysts have shown to be very active, with cellulose conversion close to 50% and selectivity to sorbitol above 75%. The support functionalization does not lead to an improvement of the catalysts’ behavior and, in fact, the Ru/SA catalyst is the most effective one, with about 50% yield to sorbitol, and a very low generation of by-products.

Highlights

Concerns on the climate change explain the increasing interest of researchers in low carbon fuels and sustainable energy, which has boosted the investigation on the production of biofuels and chemicals from renewable feedstocks like biomass [1,2]
One of the most attractive approaches is based on the use of non-food biomass, whose conversion into valuable chemicals has recently become the object of study for many researchers dealing with biorefinery processes [1,3,4,5], and with related reactions such as hydrolysis, pyrolysis, fermentation, dehydration, hydrogenation, etc
The combined hydrolytic hydrogenation of cellulose into sorbitol was successfully achieved using catalysts prepared by supporting Ru nanoparticles (1 wt% Ru) on mesoporous carbon materials

Summary

Introduction

Concerns on the climate change explain the increasing interest of researchers in low carbon fuels and sustainable energy, which has boosted the investigation on the production of biofuels and chemicals from renewable feedstocks like biomass [1,2]. A big effort is being made in this field in order to convert cellulose into sugar alcohols Among these compounds, sorbitol is attractive because of its large number of applications: in pharmacies, food, cosmetics, and as an alternative for biofuel production [6,7,8]. Sorbitol is attractive because of its large number of applications: in pharmacies, food, cosmetics, and as an alternative for biofuel production [6,7,8] This polyol can be obtained by two consecutive reactions: hydrolysis of cellulose to produce glucose, followed by glucose hydrogenation to sorbitol, meaning that the process requires two different catalytic functions. They can be considered promising catalysts that could replace liquid acids to make the processes greener

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