Biomass, in particular lignocellulosic materials, is a kind of renewable yet abundant organic carbon source in nature. The efficient utilization of biomass for production of liquid fuels and chemicals will be envisioned as a promising way towards a low-carbon and sustainable society.So far a variety of transformation strategies of biomass have been proposed and established. Among them, the transformation of biomass into low-molecular chemicals and fuel additives (ethylene glycol, ethanol, ethanol amine, etc.) has attracted intensive attentions, and also present grand challenges in the selectivity control. As biomass is composed of three-dimensional macromolecules, the cleavage of C-C bond becomes a key step in the transformation of biomass to low-molecular chemicals and fuel additives.<br/>In this presentation, I will give three examples to show the selective cleavage of C-C bond of cellulose in the presence of tungsten-based catalysts. First, the direct conversion of cellulose to ethylene glycol will be discussed in terms of catalyst design and reaction kinetics. Then, cellulose conversion to ethanol via methyl glycolate is presented. Finally, a two-step process for the conversion of cellulose to ethanol amine is developed. In the above three transformation processes, a common intermediate, glycolaldehyde is involved, which is produced through retro-aldol condensation of cellulose-derived glucose under the presence of W-based catalysts. To rapidly convert the unstable glycolaldehyde to stable final chemicals (ethylene glycol, methyl glycolate, ethanolamine), bifunctional catalysts which can best match the rate-determining C-C cleaving step and the rapid successive step (hydrogenation or oxidative esterification or reductive amination) is required.

Cleavage of C-C bond: A key step in the biomass conversion to chemicals

255th National Meeting (2018)

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