Book Description

Today, there is growing interest in aqueous-phase catalytic conversions for the valorization of renewable biomass-based feedstocks for biorefineries to produce, in a sustainable way, biofuels, chemicals, power, energy, materials, pharmaceuticals and food. This is because of the highly polar nature of water which makes it an ideal medium to convert polar biomass-based lignocellulose (cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin), with high oxygen content, and their upgraded products such as hydrophilic carbohydrates, platform chemicals and their derivatives. Another reason which makes water the solvent of choice is that water itself is involved either as a reagent or as a byproduct even in large amounts in typical conversions for the valorization of biomass. The obtained intermediates further react in the aqueous medium, often without any separation and purification, to manufacture more valuable products. This results in substantial energy savings, lower emissions and economic benefits. Furthermore, water could act as a catalyst in conversions of biomass-based feedstocks such as in liquefaction reactions under subcritical conditions. Moreover, novel types of catalytic reactivity have been observed in the aqueous solvent, not only with water-soluble transition metal catalytic complexes, but also with conventional heterogeneous catalysts and catalytic nanoparticles in a broad spectrum of different reactions such as, inter alia, aldol condensations and hydrogenation reactions. For example, in the aqueous-phase hydrogenation of the biomass-based key platform chemical levulinic acid into γ-valerolactone and beyond, employing heterogeneous catalysts and nanoparticles the presence of water has a beneficial effect and accelerates the reaction rates, whereas in organic solvents much lower activities were observed. This promotional effect of water in the hydrogenation of levulinic acid was proved by many experimental and theoretical studies using a broad spectrum of different types of catalytic systems.