Valorization of a platform chemicals issued from sugars hydrogenation reactions over supported metal catalysts on functionalized carbon materials.

Abstract

The worldwide demand of energy and its excessive consumption will lead soon to fuel reserve deficiencies and harmful effects over the climate.All these items have caused a shift of the research interest toward new long-term,green,and sustainable energy sources.Such alternative is the catalytic conversion in liquid phase of carbohydrates originated from the renewable ignocellulosic biomass in biofuels and industrial commodities of high added value.To achieve this is necessary to develop an active, robust,and cost-efficient catalyst for carbohydrates chemical valorization trough dehydration,isomerization and hydrodeoxygenation reactions.In this thesis,commercial and homemade(from residual biomass)carbon materials are functionalized and employed as supports and catalysts in the aforementioned reactions.The material’s structure and reaction parameters are modified in order to obtain high process efficiency:high conversion and desired product yields.Some kinetic aspects of the reaction are also studied as well as the viability of the catalysts in biorefinery processing at large scale.