Selective oxidation of biomass-derived carbohydrate monomers

Catalytic Hydrogenation and Oxidation of Biomass- Derived Levulinic Acid

Levulinic acid (LA), 4-oxo-pentanoic acid, is a new platform chemical with various potential uses. In this paper, catalytic hydrogenation and oxidation of levulinic acid were studied. It was shown from experiments that levulinic acid can be hydrogenated to γ-valerolactone (GVL) over transition metal catalysts and oxidative-decarboxylated to 2-butanone (methyl-ethyl-ketone, MEK) and methyl-vinyl...

Selective Oxidation of Xylenes to Toluic Acids

A mixture of manganese, cobalt and lead para-amino benzoates supported on silica gel is used to catalyze oxidation of xylenes to toluic acids in presence of oxygen or air. Reactions are clean and catalysts can be recovered easily and reused.

Selective Formation and Conformational Analysis of Carbohydrate-derived Radicals

Carbohydrate free radicals are generated in non-aqueous solution by abstraction of bromine, iodine or selenophenyl with photolytically generated stannyl radicals from appropriately substituted pyranose derivatives and their e.s.r. spectra are recorded in the temperature range from 30 to 70 "C. From the hyperfine splitting parameters the preferred conformations of these sugar radicals are derive...

Carbohydrate Oxidation Acidifies

Optimization of biomass fast pyrolysis for the production of monomers

Fast pyrolysis is a promising method for producing advanced biofuels and chemicals from lignocellulosic biomass. The process will however require further optimization to produce fuels and chemicals at a price competitive to conventional fossil fuel-derived products. Research in this dissertation focuses on both preand postprocesses for optimizing fast pyrolysis to produce increased yields of va...