GLOBAL - Joining Forces in Sustainable Catalysis and Energy Based on Renewables

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The goal of a sustainable society requires the efficient use of renewable or sustainable materials and demands the development of selective new methodologies for the preparation of desirable products. In this context we require: (i) a change from traditional stoichiometric, high energy methods that produce huge amounts of chemical waste to mild and clean catalytic processes and (ii) a major step change in chemicals production with fossil fuels being replaced by renewable resources as chemical starter units.In this proposal we have identified a series of collaborative projects that would benefit from the mutual exchange of scientific expertise between St Andrews Chemistry homogeneous catalysis grouping and the Dutch CatchBio (Catalysis for Sustainable Chemicals from Biomass) consortium. This collaboration will allow new links within the EU to be established in order to deliver research excellence. These collaborative areas, combined with a series of international workshops and conferences linked to this proposal, we believe will allow for greater internationalisation and possible commercialisation of our research portfolio.The challenge to change our societies reliance for chemical production from fossil-fuel based to all-renewable resources is a challenge of enormous scale.This change must be broken down into smaller, manageable components capable of demonstrating the effectiveness of this strategy in order to showcase the transition necessary. In this proposal we will establish links with world leading experts to develop leading examples of this approach and have identified the following areas where we believe collaboration can impact. With added expertise from ourDutch partners we will: 1. Develop optimal catalysts for ether cleavage in 'real life samples' of lignin for maximising the potential of lignocellulose as a source of fuels and fine chemicals. The most successful catalyst systems developed will be immobilized and these heterogeneous systems fully explored and optimised through collaboration with the CatchBio consortium.2. Develop novel catalytic methods to convert renewable waste feedstocks such as Tall oil to important products such as fuels, chemicals and polymers.3. Harness the power of automated catalyst and library design to facilitate the preparation of catalyst libraries in both solution and solid state. The utility of this capability will be showcased through the use of CO2 as an abundant C1 building block in asymmetric chemical reduction processes.