Combination of chemo and biocatalysis towards the valorization of biomass-derived sugars

JUAN J. MUSCI; MARÍA J. TORRES; ANDREA B. MERLO; MÓNICA L. CASELLA

Madrid

Simposio; 3rd International Symposium on Catalysis for Clean Energy and Sustainable Chemistry; 2016

CSIC and Spanish Hydrogen Association

From biomass it is possible to derive three general classes of feedstocks: 75% is carbohydrate, mainly in the form of cellulose, starch and saccharose, 20% is lignin and only 5% is other natural compounds, such as fats (oils), triglycerides, proteins and various substances. Cellulose, the most abundant biopolymer on the planet, is made up exclusively of glucose linked unbranched chains (between 38 and 50% of dry weight) [1]. The transformation of cellulose into sugars and bio-derived products can be carried out either via fermentation processes or via chemical methods or a combination of both. This last choice, the combination of biocatalytic and chemocatalytic reactions leading to one-pot processes in aqueous medium, represents an economically and ecologically attractive concept due to the potential to avoid time and capacity consuming and waste producing work-up steps of intermediates [2].Scheme 1 represents the chemical structure of cellulose and the products that can be obtainedthrough a combination of a two-step one-pot strategy based on the use of an enzymaticcatalyst followed by a chemocatalyticstep, which is the objective of thepresent contribution.