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allied
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Journal of Biotechnology and Phytochemistry
Volume 1 Issue 3
Chemistry World 2017
Notes:
Page 58
November 13-15, 2017 Athens, Greece
7
th
World Congress on
Chemistry
Catalytic hydrogenation of biomass derived
levulinic acid using zero valent non-precious metal
Fe catalysts based on N-triphos ligand
Uwaila Omoruyi, Samuel Page, Andrew White
and
Philip W. Miller
Imperial College London, United Kingdom
T
he global concern on declining crude oil resources and
efforts to reduce the anthropogenic emission of CO
2
has
led to an intensified search for renewable and environmentally
benign alternative sources of carbon for the production of
transportation fuels and chemical. Biomass remains the most
suitable and sustainable alternative that meets both the demand
for clean energy and the production of liquid transportation fuels
and chemicals.1 Levulinic acid (LA) is an important biomass
derived platform molecule that can be transformed to more
valuable chemicals and fuels, with catalysis playing a key role in
its transformations. Ru-triphosphine complexes have recently
proven to be excellent homogeneous catalysts for effecting
the hydrogenation of LA to gamma-valerolactone (GVL), 1,
4-pentanediol (1, 4-PDO) and 2-methytetrahydrofuran (2-
MTHF), however, there are few reports on non-precious based
metal catalyst for this transformation.2,3
Herein we explore the catalytic hydrogenation of LA to GVL, 1,
4-PDO and 2-MTHF using more sustainable non-precious metal
Fe complexes as catalysts (fig.1).The Fe metal precursors Fe3CO
12
and FeCO
5
were chosen because of their previously reported
catalytic activity and commercial availability.The novel bimetallic
[Fe(CO)
3
(K
2
-NP3
Ph
)(μ-PPh
2
)Fe(CO)
4
]
and
monometallic
Fe(CO)
3
(K
2
-NP3
Ph
)] Fe
0
complexes were synthesized from
the reaction of N, N, N- tris(diphenylphosphinomethy)
amine (N-triphosPh) ligand with Fe3CO
12
and Fe(C
8
H
8
)(CO)
3
precursors respectively. Catalysis of LA was performed in a high
pressure autoclave under the conditions of 150o C and 50 bar H
2
.
Near quantitative conversion of LA was observed in most cases,
yields were determined by GC.
Fig. 1 Hydrogenation pathway of levulinic acid (LA)
[1] M. J. Climent, A. Corma, S. Iborra. Green Chem. 2014, 16
(2), 516. [2] F. M. A. Geilen, B. Engendahl, A. Harwardt, W.
Marquardt, J. Klankermayer, W. Leitner. Angew.Chemie - Int. Ed.
2010, 49 (32), 5510 –5514. [3] H. Zhong, Q. Li, J. Liu, G. Yao, J.
Wang, X. Zeng, Z. Huo, F. Jin. ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 2017,
5, 6517− 6523.
Biography
Uwaila Omoruyi obtained her BSc (2006) and MSc (2013) in industrial chemistry
from the University of Benin, Nigeria. She then proceeded to United Kingdom in
2014 to pursue a PhD in the Department of Chemistry, Imperial College London
under the supervision of Dr. Philip Miller. She is currently in the final year of her PhD
and her research is focused on the catalytic hydrogenation of biogenic acids using
novel phosphine complexes. Uwaila is a recipient of a scholarship award from the
Nigerian Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF)
u.omoruyi14@imperial.ac.ukUwaila Omoruyi et al., J Biotech and Phyto 2017