The catalytic conversion of polyols and other oxygenates derived from biomass into chemical and fuels  requires a  close coupling of elementary molecular transformations including hydrogenation, hydrogenolysis, dehydration, and condensation  which act to remove oxygen with minimal hydrogen addition.  Many of these transformations can be more efficiently carried out by the generation of bifunctional catalytic materials that bring together metal sites for hydrogenation, dehydrogenation together with acid or base sites for dehydration, ring opening, aldol condensation.  The strong and weak binding of OH as well as OR intermediates on different metal surfaces can make them active acid or base sites and their direct incorporation into the parent metal can provide the bifunctionality necessary to carry out the selective transformation of oxygenates. This talk discusses the acid/metal catalyzed ring opening and hydrogenolysis of polyols over alloy surfaces as well as base/metal catalyzed C-O and C-C formation processes over Cu.

Catalytic transformations of oxygenates derived from biomass over acid and base sites on supported metal particles

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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