Chinese Journal of Catalysis ›› 2015, Vol. 36 ›› Issue (10): 1694-1700.DOI: 10.1016/S1872-2067(15)60933-0

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Catalytic conversion of Jerusalem artichoke tuber into hexitols using the bifunctional catalyst Ru/(AC-SO3H)

Likun Zhoua,b, Zhenlei Lia,b, Jifeng Panga, Mingyuan Zhenga, Aiqin Wanga, Tao Zhanga   

  1. a Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, Liaoning, China;
    b University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
  • Received:2015-04-17 Revised:2015-06-03 Online:2015-09-26 Published:2015-09-26
  • Supported by:

    This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21176235, 21306191 and 21376239).

Abstract:

Jerusalem artichoke tuber (JAT) was employed as a feedstock for production of hexitols under mild conditions over a sulfonated activated carbon supported Ru catalyst (Ru/(AC-SO3H)). In comparison with conventional Ru/AC catalyst, the sulfonation process of the carbon support was observed to create abundant surface acid groups, which in turn function as the anchoring sites for Ru nanoparticles, thus increasing the dispersion of Ru. Consequently, the bifunctional Ru/(AC-SO3H) catalyst displayed significantly enhanced activity in one-pot production of hexitols from JAT; the hexitols yield achieved 92.6% over the 3%Ru/(AC-SO3H) catalyst when the reaction was conducted at 373 K and 6 MPa H2 for 3 h. The stability of the catalyst was also investigated, which showed a decreasing trend in the yield of sorbitol with the run number due to poisoning of Ru surface by the impurity in the JAT feedstock. In contrast, when pure inulin was used as the feedstock, the catalyst presented excellent stability in the successive four runs.

Key words: Jerusalem artichoke tuber, Hexitols, Bifunctional catalysts, Hydrolysis, Hydrogenation, Ruthenium, Sulfonation