High production of furfural by flash pyrolysis of C6 sugars and lignocellulose by Pd-PdO/ZnSO<sub>4</sub> catalyst.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 36944654.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-023-37250-0 and PMC identifier 10030963.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Furfural (C<sub>5</sub>H<sub>4</sub>O<sub>2</sub>) is an important platform chemical for the synthesis of next-generation bio-fuels. Herein, we report a novel and reusable heterogeneous catalyst, Pd-PdO/ZnSO<sub>4</sub> with 1.1 mol% palladium (Pd), for the production of furfural by flash pyrolysis of lignocelluloses at 400 °C. For both dry and wet C6 cellulose and its monomers, the furfural yields reach 74-82 mol%, relative to 96 mol% from C5 xylan and 23-33 wt% from sugarcane bagasse and corncob. The catalyst has a well-defined structure and bifunctional property, comprising a ZnSO<sub>4</sub> support for the dehydration and isomerization of glucose, and a local core-shell configuration for metallic Pd<sup>0</sup> encapsulated by an oxide (PdO) layer. The PdO layer is active for the Grob fragmentation of formaldehyde (HCHO) from glucose, which is subsequently in-situ steam reformed into syn-gas (i.e. H<sub>2</sub> and CO), whereas the Pd<sup>0</sup> core is active in promoting the last dehydration step for the formation of furfural.