Production of C5/C6 Sugar Alcohols by Hydrolytic Hydrogenation of Raw Lignocellulosic Biomass over Zr Based Solid Acids Combined with Ru/C

Producing chemicals from lignocellulosic biomass is important in view of the huge availability of biomass and positive environmental significance by reducing carbon emission due to fast carbon cycle during biomass growth and applications. Here, we prepared zirconium based solid acids for hydrolytic hydrogenation of raw lignocelluloses to coproduce C-5/C-6 sugar alcohols (the important platform for downstream chemicals and fuel production) as combined with commercial Ru/C. Among these solid acids, the amorphous zirconium phosphate (ZrP) presented the largest acidic sites, with medium and strong acidity as the majority, showing the highest goal sugar alcohols yield of 70% at optimal reaction conditions. During pennisetum transformation, this combined catalyst was reusable despite the activity of the second run being lower than the initial one, and the activity could be recovered by recalcination of spent ZrP. The primary structure of surviving lignin remained after cellulose and hemicellulose were converted, showing the significance for fractional biomass applications if considering the further transformation of lignin.