Lignocellulosic biomass, which is the most abundant and bio-renewable resource on earth, has a great potential for sustainable production of chemicals and fuels. Chemocatalytic conversion of lignocellulosic biomass using multifunctional catalysts could provide a wide range of value-added chemicals with a high yield and selectivity Herein, Ga-doped Cu/Nanozeolite-Y and Ga-doped Zn/nanozeolite-Y multifunctional catalysts have been used to convert lignocellulosic biomass and lignocellulosic biomass-derived components into value-added chemicals such as deoxygenated lignin monomeric species and methyl lactate under sub- and supercritical methanol conditions. The nanozeolite-Y support exhibited a mesoporous structure with a large external surface area, which can facilitate reactant adsorption while the Ga doping not only increased the Zn/Cu metal dispersion, but also increased the Lewis acidity of the catalyst. As a result, Ga doped Zn-H-nanozeolite-Y showed excellent activity toward cellulose conversion into highly selective methyl lactate with 57.8 mol% yield under supercritical methanol condition. In case of hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of lignin-derived components, the Ga doping not only increased the Cu dispersion and Lewis acidity, but produced low coordinated Ga species (e.g., Ga+ and (GaH2)+), which could enhance the HDO activity of vanillin. As a result, a complete vanillin conversion of acetovanilone into its decarbonylated species (creosol and 4-ethylguiuacol) with a high selectivity (&gt; 99%) could be achieved under mild reaction (160 oC, 1 MPa, 2-5 h). In addition, when cinnalmaldehyde was converted over Ga-doped Cu/HNZY at 180 °C, selective hydrogenation and HDO followed by cyclization formed a high amount of indane and its derivates, which have a variety of applications in pharmaceutical and agricultural industries. This could open a new possibility for lignin-to-drug intermediates.

Direct biomass conversion into fuels and chemicals over multifunctional nanozeolite-Y based catalyst

256th National Meeting (2018)

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