High-selective hydrogenolysis of xylitol on Ru-based catalyst in absence of base

M. Riviere (1) , N. Perret (1) , Cabiac A. , Delcroix D. , C. Pinel (1) , M. Besson (1)

1 CDURABLE - IRCELYON-C'Durable

Hydrogenolysis of alditols (i.e. xylitol), in aqueous solution, is one way to produce ethylene glycol (EG) and propylene glycol (PG) from biosourced compounds. Whereas the addition of an homogeneous base (i.e. Ca(OH)2) is known to cleave the C-C bonds via retro-aldol reaction, the use of bifunctional catalysts, associating basic properties and metallic sites on the catalyst surface is not yet well developed for this reaction. Here, we report the effect of Ru-based catalysts, such as Ru/MnO/C, Ru/MnOx or Ru/Mny-Alz-Oy+1.5z on xylitol hydrogenolysis in the absence of base. Ru/MnO/C or Ru/Mny-Alz-Oy+1.5z catalysts are more selective to glycols (up to 52%) than Ru/C. Moreover, the introduction of 10 vol.% alcoholic solvent (i.e. MeOH, EtOH, PrOH) in water increased the selectivity towards glycols from 22% to 60% over Ru/MnO/C.

Domaines: Catalyse; Environnement et Société

M. Riviere, N. Perret, Cabiac A., Delcroix D., C. Pinel, et al.. High-selective hydrogenolysis of xylitol on Ru-based catalyst in absence of base. Europacat 2017, Aug 2017, Florence Italy. ⟨hal-01514337⟩