9 research outputs found
Catalytic Upgrading of Biomass Model Compounds: Novel Approaches and Lessons Learnt from Traditional Hydrodeoxygenation â a Review
Catalytic hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) is a fundamental process for bioâresources upgrading to produce transportation fuels or added value chemicals. The bottleneck of this technology to be implemented at commercial scale is its dependence on high pressure hydrogen, an expensive resource which utilization also poses safety concerns. In this scenario, the development of hydrogenâfree alternatives to facilitate oxygen removal in biomass derived compounds is a major challenge for catalysis science but at the same time it could revolutionize biomass processing technologies. In this review we have analysed several novel approaches, including catalytic transfer hydrogenation (CTH), combined reforming and hydrodeoxygenation, metal hydrolysis and subsequent hydrodeoxygenation along with nonâthermal plasma (NTP) to avoid the supply of external H2. The knowledge accumulated from traditional HDO sets the grounds for catalysts and processes development among the hydrogen alternatives. In this sense, mechanistic aspects for HDO and the proposed alternatives are carefully analysed in this work. Biomass model compounds are selected aiming to provide an inâdepth description of the different processes and stablish solid correlations catalysts compositionâcatalytic performance which can be further extrapolated to more complex biomass feedstocks. Moreover, the current challenges and research trends of novel hydrodeoxygenation strategies are also presented aiming to spark inspiration among the broad community of scientists working towards a low carbon society where bioâresources will play a major role.Financial support for this work was provided by the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering of the University of Surrey and the EPSRC grants EP/J020184/2 and EP/R512904/1 as well as the Royal Society Research Grant RSGR1180353. Authors would also like to acknowledge the Ministerio de EconomĂa, Industriay Competitividad of Spain (Project MAT2013â45008âP) and the Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC). LPP also thanks Comunitat Valenciana for her postdoctoral fellow (APOSTD2017)