Design of Supported Metal Nanoparticulate Catalysts for Hydrogenation of Biomass Derived Polyols

Biomass derived glycerol and sugar alcohols like xylitol and sorbitol are considered as useful building block compounds for producing value added chemicals [1, 2]. The hydrogenation of polyols to lower oxygenated compounds is an important alternative route for a number of commodity and specialty products in the polymer and food industries. In this presentation, the synthesis, characterization and catalytic performance of a specially designed nano-metal catalyst for polyol hydrogenolysis will be reported. The nano-metal catalysts were characterized by ICP-OES, chemisorption, NMR, TEM, EDX, XRD etc to elucidate their structure. Supported Ru catalyst with uniformly dispersed Ru metal with an average particle size of 4-5 nm shows a significant catalytic activity and selectivity in hydrogenation of glycerol to 1,2-propanediol (Conversion: 60%; selectivity to 1,2-propanediol: 38%). The activity and selectivity of other nano-metal catalysts and their catalytic performance in hydrogenolysis of polyols will also be addressed.

1. Fernando, S.; Adhikari, S.; Chandrapal, C.; Murali, N., Biorefineries: current status, challenges, and future direction. Energy & Fuels, 2006, 20, 1727.

2. Corma, A.; Iborra, S.; Velty, A. Chemical routes for the transformation of biomass into chemicals. Chem. Rev., 2007, 107, 2411.