Hydrogenolysis of sugar beet fiber by supported metal catalyst

Sugar beet fiber is an agricultural by-product in the sugar manufacturing and an available biomass source with a rich hemicellulose component. So far, there has been no report on the catalytic conversion of the beet fiber for the synthesis of chemicals. In this work, the hydrogenolysis of the beet fiber was studied by using supported metal catalysts under pressurized hydrogen conditions. Activated carbon supported Ru was found to show the highest catalytic activity to give arabitol as a major product in the hydrogenolysis of hemicellulose part of this material. The reuse ability of the catalyst was also investigated. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.