Hydrotreating Catalysis for Sugar-to-Glycol Conversion

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The worldwide interest in clean fuels and chemicals derived from biomass is driven by the need to reduce the environmental impact of fossil fuels. Glycols are one class of industrial chemicals that can be produced from sugars derived from biomass. The basis for C5/C6 sugar conversion to glycols is a catalytic hydrogenation carried out at high H2 pressure (10-15 MPa) and moderate temperature (100-120C) followed by hydrogenolysis at higher temperature (200-225C) to produce ethylene glycol and propylene glycol. The reactions are catalyzed by several different catalysts. The goals of the present study are to understand the effect of process variables on catalyst performance, as measured by the hydrogenation and hydrogenolysis kinetics of C5/C6 sugars, and to quantify catalyst deactivation kinetics. The results will contribute to the scale-up and commercialization of this technology which in turn will benefit the forestry and agricultural industries by adding significant value to their waste and byproduct streams. Furthermore, converting just 5% of the 20 million tpy glycol market to a a biomass feedstock will decrease GHG emissions by about 1800 ktonnes each year.