The conversion of lignocellulosics derived from wood, agricultural wastes, and woody grasses into liquid fuels and value-added chemical feedstocks is an active area of research that has seen an explosion of effort due to the need to replace petroleum based sources. The carbohydrates D-glucose (C6), L-arabinose (C5), and D-xylose (C5) are readily obtained from the hydrolysis of lignocellulose and constitute the most abundant renewable organic carbon source on the planet. Because they are naturally produced on such a large scale, these sugars have the greatest potential to displace petrochemical derived transportation fuels.1 Recent efforts in our laboratories have been aimed towards the production of high energy density transportation fuels from carbohydrate derived sources. This requires that we understand how to effect desired hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) chemistries (e.g. dehydrations and hydrogenations) on these polyol based substrates. Our work has been structured around the parameters of selective carbohydrate carbon chain extension chemistries, the use of neat substrate or water as a solvent where possible and low reaction temperatures for HDO catalysis.2  This talk will focus on an extension of our work with mono- and oligosaccharides as synthons for fuels precursors and the subsequent HDO chemistries of these species. 1. (a) Ragauskas, A. J.; Williams, C. K.; Davison, B. H.; Britovsek, G.; Cairney, J.; Eckert, C. A.; Frederick, Jr., W. J.;  Hallett, J. P.; Leak, D. J.; Liotta, C. L.; Mielenz, J. R.; Murphy, R.; Templer, R.; Tschaplinski T. Science 2006, 311, 484. (b) Schlaf, M. Dalton Trans., 2006, 4645.2. Sutton, A. D., Waldie,F.;Wu, R; Schlaf,M.;Silks III, L. A. P., Gordon, J. C. Nature Chemistry 2013, 5, 428 and references therein.

Upgrading carbohydrates into hydrocarbons for fuels applications

248th National Meeting (2014)

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