Key words: subcritical water, cellulose, polyols, hydrolytic hydrogenation, hypercrosslinked polystyrene, heterogeneous catalysis
It is demonstrated that subcritical water is efficient as a medium for the cellulose conversion process to produce polyols. A novel type of Ru-containing catalysts supported on hypercrosslinked polystyrene (HPS) is suggested. In the presence of the catalyst containing 1% Ru the total yield of sorbitol and mannitol reaches 50 %; this is comparable with the results obtained in the presence of more complex and, therefore, more expensive catalytic systems. The influence of both the process conditions and the catalyst properties on the target product yield is studied. The hydrolytic hydrogenation of cellulose in subcritical water using Ru-containing catalysts can be considered as a basis for novel technologies of cellulose-containing biomass conversion and production of raw materials for chemical synthesis and industrial production of second generation biofuels.