Catalytic Routes to Intermediates for Sustainable Processes

石油是世界上最重要的能源，占一次能源消费的35%，也是化工原料的主要来源。寻求可持续资源以满足不断增长的全球人口的需求是本世纪人类面临的主要挑战之一。要真正可行，这种替代原料必须是可持续的，即“有能力满足21世纪的能源需求，同时不损害子孙后代的能源需求。”发展利用可再生原料生产大规模化学中间体和商品化学品的有效途径对化学工业的经济和环境可持续性产生重大影响至关重要。虽然精细化学和制药工艺具有多样化的化学性质，需要寻找绿色替代品，但如果要实现化学品制造的整体可持续性改善，石油化学衍生中间体的大规模生产肯定是一个优先问题。例如，尼龙占全球人造纤维产量的8.9%，目前主要来自石化产品。它是化工行业采用的规模最大的化学工艺之一。在不久的将来实现可持续的化学工业需要直接替代原油原料的化学品。如果我们要结束对石化产品的依赖，从可持续来源的中间体中生产下一代先进材料是第二个需要解决的关键挑战。该项目将开发新的多相催化工艺，将纤维素衍生物转化为高价值的平台和商品化学品。我们的目标是可持续生产用于聚酰胺和丙烯酸酯制造的中间体，从而取代石油原料。实现该项目的目标需要新的多功能催化剂技术，以优化酸碱性质，氢转移和脱氧能力。利用从我们之前的工作中收集到的对催化剂设计的见解，定向高通量（HT）催化剂合成和发现计划将寻求用于关键生物质转化的多功能催化剂配方。目标配方将按比例放大并分散到多孔结构中，用于实验室规模的工业型反应器的研究。我们还将寻求利用多相工艺来提高选择性和收率。这将与多尺度系统分析相结合，以帮助优先考虑有前途的途径，与行业密切合作，将新工艺与现有工艺进行基准测试，制定绩效指标（例如生命周期分析（LCA）），以设定催化过程的目标，并探索与现有工业价值链的最佳整合策略。优化单一产品选择性与允许多种反应方案之间的权衡，并在“多产品”过程中使用有效的分离技术将被探索。将利用平行方案的数据来评价副产品作为燃料、氢气来源或化学原料的潜在利用。

Oil is the most important source of energy worldwide, accounting for 35% of primary energy consumption and the majority of chemical feedstocks. The quest for sustainable resources to meet demands of a constantly rising global population is one of the main challenges for mankind this century. To be truly viable such alternative feedstocks must be sustainable, that is "have the ability to meet 21st century energy needs without compromising those of future generations." Development of efficient routes to large-scale chemical intermediates and commodity chemicals from renewable feedstocks is essential to have a major impact on the economic and environmental sustainability of the chemical industry. While fine chemical and pharmaceutical processes have a diverse chemistry and a need to find green alternatives, the large scale production of petrochemical derived intermediates is surely a priority issue if improved overall sustainability in chemicals manufacture is to be achieved. For example, nylon accounts for 8.9% of all manmade fibre production globally and is currently sourced exclusively from petrochemicals. It is one of the largest scale chemical processes employed by the chemicals sector. Achieving a sustainable chemicals industry in the near future requires 'drop in' chemicals for direct replacement of crude oil feedstocks. The production of next-generation advanced materials from the sustainably-sourced intermediates is a second key challenge to be tackled if our reliance on petrochemicals is to endThe project will develop new heterogeneously catalysed processes to convert cellulose derivatives to high value platform and commodity chemicals. We specifically target sustainable production of intermediates for manufacture of polyamides and acrylates, thereby displacing petroleum feedstocks. Achieving the aims of the project requires novel multifunctional catalyst technology which optimises the acid-base properties, hydrogen transfer and deoxygenation capability. Using insights into catalyst design gleaned from our previous work, a directed high-throughput (HT) catalyst synthesis and discovery programme will seek multifunctional catalyst formulations for key biomass transformations. Target formulations will be scaled up and dispersed onto porous architectures for study in lab-scale industrial-style reactors. We will also seek to exploit multi-phase processes to improve selectivity and yield. This will be combined with multi-scale systems analysis to help prioritise promising pathways, work closely with industry to benchmark novel processes against established ones, develop performance measures (e.g. life cycle analysis (LCA)) to set targets for catalytic processes and explore optimal integration strategies with existing industrial value chains. Trade-offs between optimising single product selectivity versus allowing multiple reaction schemes and using effective separation technology in a "multiproduct" process will be explored. The potential utilization of by-products as fuels, sources of hydrogen, or as chemical feeds, will be evaluated by utilizing data from parallel programmes.