| Many industrially important chemicals are currently produced using petroleum and natural gas as feedstocks. These fossil fuel resources are finite and nonrenewable. Development of new technology for the conversion of sugars to major industrial chemicals namely glycerol, propylene glycol, and ethylene glycol may replace the current petroleum or fermentation based processes. Selectivity-controlled hydrogenolysis is a promising pathway for conversion of sugars to polyhydric alcohols with no carbon atom loss. In this research with substrates glucose, fructose, and sucrose, I examine the efficacy of nine different catalysts and two solvents in the sugar hydrogenolysis process. Catalysts or catalyst combinations that favored the desired reaction pathway included 5% ruthenium on carbon; nickel on kieselguhr; palladium 1% on carbon and boron oxide; and nickel on alumina/silica and iron (III) oxide. Yields as high as 39%, 33%, and 12% were attained for propylene glycol, glycerol, and ethylene glycol, respectively. Also, a total selectivity of 63% for the products propylene glycol, glycerol, and ethylene glycol was achieved under the studied reaction conditions. Barium promoted copper chromite yielded 100% conversions for substrates glucose, fructose, and sucrose. The catalytic conversion of glucose, fructose, and sucrose in this work has demonstrated that further development of an efficient selectivity-controlled sugar hydrogenolysis process would inevitably lead to an industrially, economically, and environmentally significant process. |
