Selective Cellulose Hydrogenolysis to Ethanol Using Ni@C Combined with Phosphoric Acid Catalysts

Qiying Liu; Haiyong Wang; Haosheng Xin; Chenguang Wang; Long Yan; Yingxiong Wang; Qi Zhang; Xinghua Zhang; Ying Xu; George W Huber; Longlong Ma

doi:10.1002/cssc.201901110

Selective Cellulose Hydrogenolysis to Ethanol Using Ni@C Combined with Phosphoric Acid Catalysts

ChemSusChem. 2019 Sep 6;12(17):3977-3987. doi: 10.1002/cssc.201901110. Epub 2019 Jul 25.

Authors

Qiying Liu^{1

2

3

4}, Haiyong Wang^{1

2

3

5}, Haosheng Xin^{1

2

3

5}, Chenguang Wang^{1

2

3}, Long Yan^{1

2

3}, Yingxiong Wang⁶, Qi Zhang^{1

2

3}, Xinghua Zhang^{1

2

3}, Ying Xu^{1

2

3}, George W Huber⁷, Longlong Ma^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510640, P.R. China.
² CAS Key Laboratory of Renewable Energy, Guangzhou, 510640, P.R. China.
³ Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of New and Renewable Energy Research and Development, Guangzhou, 510640, P.R. China.
⁴ Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian, 116023, P.R. China.
⁵ University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, P.R. China.
⁶ Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Taiyuan, 030001, P. R. China.
⁷ Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Wisconsin, 1415 Engineering Drive, Madison, Wisconsin, 53706, USA.

PMID: 31225696
DOI: 10.1002/cssc.201901110

Abstract

Ethanol is an important bulk chemical with diverse applications. Biomass-derived ethanol is traditionally produced by fermentation. Direct cellulose conversion to ethanol by chemocatalysis is particularly promising but remains a great challenge. Herein, a one-pot hydrogenolysis of cellulose into ethanol was developed by using graphene-layers-encapsulated nickel (Ni@C) catalysts with the aid of H₃ PO₄ in water. The cellulose was hydrolyzed into glucose, which was activated by forming cyclic di-ester bonds between the OH groups of H₃ PO₄ and glucose, promoting ethanol formation under the synergistic hydrogenation of Ni@C. A 69.1 % yield of ethanol (carbon mole basis) was obtained, which is comparable to the theoretical value achieved by glucose fermentation. An ethanol concentration of up to 8.9 wt % was obtained at an increased cellulose concentration. This work demonstrates a chemocatalytic approach for the high-yield production of ethanol from renewable cellulosic biomass at high concentration.

Keywords: H3PO4; biomass; cellulose; ethanol; nickel.

Abstract

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