2152-56-9

The hydrogenolysis of sorbitol and various C5-C3 polyols (xylitol; erythritol; 1,2- 1,4- and 2,3-butandiol; 1,2-propandiol; glycerol) have been investigated at low molecular hydrogen pressure (5 bar) by using Pd/Fe3O4, as heterogeneous catalyst and water as the reaction medium. Catalytic experiments show that the carbon chain of polyols is initially shortened through dehydrogenation/decarbonylation and dehydrogenation/retro-aldol mechanisms followed by a series of cascade reactions that include dehydrogenation/decarbonylation and dehydration/hydrogenation processes. At 240 °C, sorbitol is fully converted into lower alcohols with ethanol being the main reaction product in liquid phase.

The invention discloses a preparation method of gamma-acetyl n-propanol. The method includes the steps of (1) adding the hydrolysate of plant fiber or xylose and other raw materials into a reaction still, adding a two-phase reactive solvent and a catalyst, inletting hydrogen, and heating the reaction still to react for several hours; (2) carrying out standing, liquid separation and then solid-liquid separation on reaction materials in the reaction still, obtaining water phase, oil phase and the catalyst, and recycling the catalyst for reutilization; (3) concentrating water phase products, extracting 1, 4-pentanediol in the oil phase, mixing with the concentrated solution, and carrying out further separation to obtain a crude product of 1, 4-pentanediol; (4) pumping the crude product of 1, 4-pentanediol obtained from the water phase and the oil phase in step (3) to a fixed bed reactor, carrying out dehydrogenation to produce gamma-acetyl n-propanol under the action of a catalytic dehydrogenation catalyst or an oxydehydrogenation catalyst. According to the preparation method, raw materials have extensive sources, the production cost is low, no inorganic acid system is used, and the reaction process is environment-friendly.

Fabrication technique is an important factor for development of catalysts. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is one of efficient photocatalysts. In this work, we firstly report the fabrication of TiO2 nanoparticles by sol-microwave method with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) surfactant. Absence of surfactant, microwave treatment significantly reduced the cluster sizes of TiO2, but high aggregations of TiO2 particles were observed. CTAB has great impact on morphology, cluster size and mesoporous structure of TiO2. Therefore, surface area of TiO2 synthesized by sol-microwave method with 0.108 M CTAB increased from 15.97 to 37.60 m2/g. Photocatalytic activity of TiO2 was tested via the glucose conversion to produce value-added chemicals (gluconic acid, xylitol, arabinose and formic acid). It was found that surface area, mesoporous structure and pore size of TiO2 are crucial properties for glucose conversion and product distribution. From the reaction test, 0.108 M CTAB/MW-TiO2 achieved the highest glucose conversion (62.28%).

The reaction rate on a per site basis for aqueous-phase hydrogenation (APH) of propanal, xylose, and furfural was measured over various alumina-supported bimetallic catalysts (Pd-Ni, Pd-Co, Pd-Fe, Ru-Ni, Ru-Co, Ru-Fe, Pt-Ni, Pt-Co, and Pt-Fe) using a high-throughput reactor (HTR). The results in this paper demonstrate that the activity of bimetallic catalysts for hydrogenation of a carbonyl group can be 110 times higher than monometallic catalysts. The addition of Fe to a Pd catalyst increased the activity for hydrogenation of propanal, xylose, and furfural. The Pd1Fe3 catalyst had the highest reaction rate for APH of propanal among all catalysts tested in the HTR. The addition of Fe to the Pd catalyst increased the reaction rate for xylose hydrogenation by a factor of 51, compared to the monometallic Pd catalyst. However, no bimetallic catalyst tested in this study was more active than the monometallic Ru catalyst for hydrogenation of xylose. The Pd1Fe 3 catalyst had the highest reaction rate for APH of furfural, which was 9 times higher than the rate of the Pd catalyst. The Pd1Fe 3/Zr-P, a bimetallic bifunctional catalyst, was 14 times more active on a per site basis than a Pd/Zr-P catalyst for aqueous-phase hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of sorbitol in a continuous flow reactor. The addition of Fe to the Pd catalyst increased the rate of C-C cleavage reactions and promoted the conversion of sorbitan and isosorbide in HDO of sorbitol. Pd1Fe 3/Zr-P also had a higher yield of gasoline-range products than the Pd/Zr-P catalyst.

Cellulose is the most abundant source of biomass in nature, and its selective conversion into polyols provides a viable route towards the sustainable synthesis of fuels and chemicals. Here, we report the marked change in the distribution of polyols in the cellulose reaction with the Sn/Pt atomic ratios in a wide range of 0.1-3.8 on the SnOx-modified Pt/Al 2O3 catalysts. Such a change was found to be closely related to the effects of the Sn/Pt ratios on the activity for the hydrogenation of glucose and other C6 sugar intermediates involved in the cellulose reaction as well as to the notable activity of the segregated SnO x species for the selective degradation of the sugar intermediates on the Pt-SnOx/Al2O3 catalysts. At lower Sn/Pt ratios of 0.1-1.0, there existed electron transfer from the SnOx species to the Pt sites and strong interaction between the catalysts, as characterized by temperature-programmed reduction in H2 and infrared spectroscopy for CO adsorption, which led to their superior hydrogenation activity (per exposed Pt atom), and in-parallel higher selectivity to hexitols (e.g. sorbitol) in the cellulose reaction, as compared to Pt/Al 2O3. The hexitol selectivity reached the greatest value of 82.7% at the Sn/Pt ratio of 0.5, nearly two times that of Pt/Al 2O3 at similar cellulose conversions (～20%). As the Sn/Pt ratios exceeded 1.5, the Pt-SnOx/Al2O3 catalysts exhibited inferior hydrogenation activity (per exposed Pt atom), due to the formation of the crystalline Pt-Sn alloy, which led to the preferential conversion of cellulose to C2 and especially C3 products (e.g. acetol) over hexitols, most likely involving the isomerization of glucose to fructose and retro-aldol condensation of these sugars on the segregated SnOx species, apparently in the form of Sn(OH)2. These findings clearly demonstrate the feasibility for rational control of the cellulose conversion into the target polyols (e.g. acetol or propylene glycol), for example, by the design of efficient catalysts based on the catalytic functions of the SnOx species with tunable hydrogenation activity.

The selective hydrogenolysis of biomass-derived xylitol to ethylene glycol and propylene glycol was carried out on different catalysts in the presence of Ca(OH)2. The catalysts included Ru supported on activated carbon (C) and, for comparison, on metal oxides, Al2O3, TiO 2, ZrO2 and Mg2AlOx as well as C-supported other noble metals, Rh, Pd and Pt, with similar particle sizes (1.6-2.0 nm). The kinetic effects of H2 pressures (0-10 MPa), temperatures (433-513 K) and solid bases including Ca(OH)2, Mg(OH)2 and CaCO3 were examined on Ru/C. Ru/C exhibited superior activities and glycol selectivities than Ru on TiO2, ZrO2, Al2O3 and Mg2AlOx, and Pt was found to be the most active metal. Such effects of the metals and supports are attributed apparently to their different dehydrogenation/ hydrogenation activities and surface acid-basicities, which consequently influenced the xylitol reaction pathways. The large dependencies of the activities and selectivities on the H2 pressures, reaction temperatures, and pH values showed their effects on the relative rates for the hydrogenation and base-catalyzed reactions involved in xylitol hydrogenolysis, reflecting the bifunctional nature of the xylitol reaction pathways. These results led to the proposition that xylitol hydrogenolysis to ethylene glycol and propylene glycol apparently involves kinetically relevant dehydrogenation of xylitol to xylose on the metal surfaces, and subsequent base-catalyzed retro-aldol condensation of xylose to form glycolaldehyde and glyceraldehyde, followed by direct glycolaldehyde hydrogenation to ethylene glycol and by sequential glyceraldehyde dehydration and hydrogenation to propylene glycol. Clearly, the relative rates between the hydrogenation of the aldehyde intermediates and their competitive reactions with the bases dictate the selectivities to the two glycols. This study provides directions towards efficient synthesis of the two glycols from not only xylitol, but also other lignocellulose-derived polyols, which can be achieved, for example, by optimizing the reaction parameters, as already shown by the observed effects of the catalysts, pH values, and H2 pressures.

Cellulose and even spruce can be converted efficiently into valuable platform chemicals via combined hydrolysis and hydrogenation in the aqueous phase. Thereby, heteropoly acids together with supported ruthenium catalysts show not only high activity but also remarkable selectivity to sugar alcohols reaching up to 81% yield of C4 to C6 sugar alcohols in only 7 h at 160 °C.

A catalytic system capable of reaching high performance in the hydrogenolysis of cellulose at low reaction temperature and short reaction times has been developed. Therefore, supported noble metal catalysts based on Pt, Pd and Ru have been combined with dilute mineral acids. A broad variable set in terms of type of noble metal, type of acid, acid concentration and reaction time could be evaluated based on chemical interpretation and supported by a Design of Experiment (DoE) approach. The variables significantly influenced conversion of cellulose, product range and selectivity towards sugar alcohol formation. Thus, at 160 °C, above 60% yield in sugars and sugar alcohols with 84% selectivity at a cellulose conversion of 72% could be reached. Besides, glycerol, propylene glycol, ethylene glycol and methanol were formed as additional valuable by-products leading to an overall carbon utilization above 89%. Furthermore, the concept was successfully transferred to real feedstocks in the form of spruce reaching close to 60% conversion in only one hour reaction time.

Approaches to the enantiospecific syntheses of shikimic acid and immunoactivator FR 900483 utilising Rabbit Muscle Aldolase condensations have been described.

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