On Route to Recyclable Carbon-Based Heterogeneous Catalysts for Xylan Conversion

On Route to Recyclable Carbon-based Heterogeneous Catalysts for Xylan Conversion

Po-Wen Chung, Alexander Charmot, and Alexander Katz

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering,

University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720

Energy Bioscience Institute

2151 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, CA 94720

Lignocellulosic biomass feedstocks contain significant amount of fermentable carbohydrates, including cellulose and hemicellulose. Though the conversion of cellulose into glucose or chemicals has been extensively studied, there are relatively few studies of conversion of hemicellulose into pentose and chemicals.  In light of our previous study, we have learned that mesoporous carbon material strongly adsorbs long-chain glucans from acid hydrolyzate likely due to carbohydrate-aromatic interaction between glucan and carbon surface.  Here, we have demonstrated that functional mesoporous carbon material also strongly adsorbs long-chain xylans, which are extracted from dry Miscanthus.  Miscanthus composed of 43 wt% cellulose, 22 wt% of hemicellulose and 21 wt% of lignin. We also demonstrated the conversion of those adsorbed xylans to xylose.