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.
doi:10.1134/S1990793116070125