Selective catalytic conversion of cellulose and glucose into sorbitol in subcritical water

Abstract

The goal of this study was to add high value to cellulose as the most abundant source of biomass and glucose by producing a building-block chemical-Sorbitol-, which is not produced in our country and has very large market share. In this manner, the effect of reaction time (1-2 h), catalyst amount (1-2 g) and catalyst type on conversion of cellulose and glucose and yield of sorbitol with presence of various catalysts in subcritical water environment were investigated. The hydrogenation of both glucose and cellulose over Ruthenium based catalysts (Ru/AC, Ru/SiO2, Ru-SBA15 and Ru-SBA15/SO3), using a high pressure-high temperature reactor (Parr 5500 High Pressure Compact Reactor) at a reaction pressure of 5 bar and reaction temperature of 150°C were studied. Ruthenium based catalysts were prepared by wet impregnation method. The synthesized Ru based catalysts with various metal based were characterized by various characterization tools such as Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Fouirer Transform Infrared Spektrofotometre (FT-IR) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET). The catalytic performances were evaluated in hydrogenation of cellulose and also glucose to produce sorbitol under subcritical water conditions. As a result of these analyzes, the highest sorbitol yield and cellulose conversion were found to be 234.98 ppm and 28.64%, respectively for 2 gram of Ru-SiO2 catalyst for 2 hours. For glucose conversion, the catalyst of Ru-SBA15/SO3 showed better catalytic performance than other catalysts.