Issue 6, 2023

Selective oxidation of biomass-derived carbohydrate monomers

Abstract

Current efforts in the decarbonisation and electrification of the chemical industry drive the interest in green production processes. We looked at the potential production processes for glucaric acid, which was recognized as one of the “highest value-added biomass-derived chemicals” by the US Department of Energy in 2004. Glucaric acid is a very interesting and important base chemical that can be converted into numerous end products, ranging from pharmaceuticals to bio-based polymers. Widespread use of glucaric acid would drastically reduce the carbon dioxide emissions and enable the renewable production of polymers, e.g. nylon 66. The current industrial nitric acid oxidation of glucose pushed the research towards the development of more sustainable oxidation practices, which can be classified into four broad categories: biocatalysis, heterogeneous catalysis, electrocatalysis, and photocatalysis. Since each approach requires a unique experimental setup, the comparison among them is often tedious. Enzymes require milder temperatures and pressures and provide high selectivity, but are fragile and thus unstable, compared with metallic catalysts, where selectivity is lower but productivity is usually higher. Electro- and photocatalytic processes are relatively new and promising techniques for glucose oxidation, harnessing electric potential and the power of photons, but currently suffer from low space-time yield. Furthermore, we used space-time yield as a robust comparison parameter, even though it is not as universal as, say, techno-economic analysis, which is almost impossible at this scale, due to the lack of data provided by each study. Therefore, we briefly review each approach, analyse the state of the art, and provide general guidelines for future research.

Graphical abstract: Selective oxidation of biomass-derived carbohydrate monomers

Article information

Article type
Tutorial Review
Submitted
05 Dec 2022
Accepted
26 Jan 2023
First published
09 Feb 2023
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Green Chem., 2023,25, 2220-2240

Selective oxidation of biomass-derived carbohydrate monomers

J. Teržan, A. Sedminek, Ž. Lavrič, M. Grilc, M. Huš and B. Likozar, Green Chem., 2023, 25, 2220 DOI: 10.1039/D2GC04623G

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements