Renewable N-Heterocycles Production by Thermocatalytic Conversion and Ammonization of Biomass over ZSM-5

Abstract

Chemical conversion of biomass to value-added products provides a sustainable alternative to the current chemical industry that is predominantly dependent on fossil fuels. N-Heterocycles, including pyrroles, pyridines, and indoles, etc., are the most abundant and important classes of heterocycles in nature and widely applied as pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, dyes, and other functional materials. However, all starting materials for the synthesis of N-heterocycles currently are derived from crude oil through complex multistep-processes and sometimes result in environmental problems. In this study, we show that N-heterocycles can be directly produced from biomass (including cellulose, lignocelluloses, sugars, starch, and chitosan) over commercial zeolites via a thermocatalytic conversion and ammonization process (TCC-A). All desired reactions occur in one single-step reactor within seconds. The production of pyrroles, pyridines, or indoles can be simply tuned by changing the reaction conditions. Meanwhile, ...