Hydrotreating Catalysis for Sugar-to-Glycol Conversion

全世界对来自生物质的清洁燃料和化学品的兴趣是由于需要减少化石燃料对环境的影响。甘油是一类工业化学品，其可以由衍生自生物质的糖生产。C5/C6糖转化为二醇的基础是在高H2压力（10-15 MPa）和中等温度（100- 120 ℃）下进行催化氢化，然后在较高温度（200- 225 ℃）下氢解以产生乙二醇和丙二醇。这些反应由几种不同的催化剂催化。本研究的目标是了解工艺变量对催化剂性能的影响，如通过C5/C6糖的氢化和氢解动力学测量的，并量化催化剂失活动力学。研究结果将有助于这项技术的规模扩大和商业化，这反过来又将使林业和农业受益，为其废物和副产品流增加重要价值。此外，仅将2000万吨/年乙二醇市场的5%转化为生物质原料，每年就可减少约180万吨的温室气体排放。

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.