Butanol has emerged as an attractive sustainable liquid fuel replacement for gasoline, having advantages over the more commonly used (bio) ethanol in terms of energy density, corrosion and blend ratios. This is attributed to the more alkane-like features of the higher alcohol. The development of biosynthetic pathways for its synthesis has dominated recent research but these are still challenged by very low conversion and modest selectivity. A promising alternative route is catalytically upgrading (bio) ethanol and ethanol / methanol blends into n-butanol and iso-butanol.  The Guerbet reaction, known for more than 100 years, promotes facile C-C formation with usually unreactive primary alcohols. The Wass lab have developed a series of ruthenium-based catalysts exhibiting excellent selectivity for this transformation. This paper will present recent studies into the Guerbet or ‘borrowed-hydrogen’ mechanism of these systems. Aspects such as the role of the ligand framework, isolation of organometallic catalytic intermediates, and defining the origins of the high selectivity for these ruthenium systems will be discussed.<br/><br/>

Understanding the mechanism of catalytically upgrading (bio)ethanol to butanol

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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