TY - JOUR
T1 - From Woody Biomass to Ethylene Glycol
T2 - Inorganics Removal Boosts the Yield
AU - te Molder, Thimo D.J.
AU - Kersten, Sascha R.A.
AU - Lange, Jean-Paul
AU - Ruiz, M. Pilar
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank Shell Global Solutions International B.V. for funding this research, S.S. Sunilkumar for performing part of the experiments, and Benno Knaken, Johan Agterhorst Ronald Borst, and Erna Fränzel-Luiten for the technical support.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.
PY - 2021/9/22
Y1 - 2021/9/22
N2 - Tungstate-catalyzed hydrogenolysis of sugars in untreated woody biomass to ethylene glycol (EG) has so far been unsuccessful. This work shows that production of EG is predominantly hampered by the presence of inorganic impurities in the biomass, which can be selectively removed by an acid leaching step at room temperature. Catalytic hydrogenolysis of untreated and acid-leached samples of woody biomass was run at 245 °C using sodium polytungstate and Raney Ni catalysts at low loadings, which make them sensitive to deactivation by biomass impurities. Acid-leached pine and poplar samples gave a combined glycol yield (ethylene glycol + propylene glycol) of ∼44 wt %, similar to microcrystalline cellulose, whereas their untreated counterpart only delivered a yield of 22 wt %. Measurement of the dissolved fraction of the homogenous tungstate catalyst, i.e., active, after the experiment was found to be a key predictor of the EG yield: inorganic contaminants, such as calcium, are indeed shown to precipitate the tungstate catalyst.
AB - Tungstate-catalyzed hydrogenolysis of sugars in untreated woody biomass to ethylene glycol (EG) has so far been unsuccessful. This work shows that production of EG is predominantly hampered by the presence of inorganic impurities in the biomass, which can be selectively removed by an acid leaching step at room temperature. Catalytic hydrogenolysis of untreated and acid-leached samples of woody biomass was run at 245 °C using sodium polytungstate and Raney Ni catalysts at low loadings, which make them sensitive to deactivation by biomass impurities. Acid-leached pine and poplar samples gave a combined glycol yield (ethylene glycol + propylene glycol) of ∼44 wt %, similar to microcrystalline cellulose, whereas their untreated counterpart only delivered a yield of 22 wt %. Measurement of the dissolved fraction of the homogenous tungstate catalyst, i.e., active, after the experiment was found to be a key predictor of the EG yield: inorganic contaminants, such as calcium, are indeed shown to precipitate the tungstate catalyst.
KW - UT-Hybrid-D
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85115656637&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1021/acs.iecr.1c02353
DO - 10.1021/acs.iecr.1c02353
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85115656637
SN - 0888-5885
VL - 60
SP - 13515
EP - 13522
JO - Industrial & engineering chemistry research
JF - Industrial & engineering chemistry research
IS - 37
ER -