Catalytic amino acid production from biomass-derived intermediates

Abstract

SignificanceToday, amino acids are primarily manufactured via microbial cultivation processes, which are costly, are time consuming, and require extensive separations processes. As an alternative, chemocatalytic approaches to produce amino acids from renewable feedstocks such as bio-based sugars could offer a rapid and potentially more efficient means of amino acid synthesis, but efforts to date have been limited by the development of facile chemistry and associated catalyst materials to selectively produce α-amino acids. In this work, various α-amino acids, including alanine, leucine, aspartic acid, and phenylalanine, were obtained from both biomass-derived α-hydroxyl acids and glucose. The route bridges plant-based biomass and proteinogenic α-amino acids, offering a chemical approach that is potentially superior to microbial cultivation processes.

Selective Acceptorless Dehydrogenation of Primary Amines to Imines by Core–Shell Cobalt Nanoparticles

“…Applications of amino acids derivatives that can be derived from biomass α‐hydroxyl acids are particularly attractive . Consequently, we investigated the hetero‐dehydrogenation of primary amines with amino acids derivatives.…”

Waste Seashells as a Highly Active Catalyst for Cyclopentanone Self-Aldol Condensation

“…Compared with other biomass, lignocellulose, which is derived from agricultural waste and forest residues, is much cheaper and more abundant. Therefore, the synthesis of fuel and chemicals with lignocellulose-derived platform molecules has been a research hotspot [4][5][6][7][8].…”

Conversion of levulinic acid to γ-valerolactone over Ru/Al2O3–TiO2 catalyst under mild conditions

“…Fortunately, the conversion of LA to GVL can also be catalysed efficiently by noble metal catalysts under mild condition because of their excellent catalytic activity for hydrogenation. [14][15][16] It had been reported that GVL yields are more than 90% over the catalysts of Ru, Pt and Pd at 90 C. 17,18 Sudhakar et al 19 had reported that hydroxyapatite (HAP)-supported Ru catalyst exhibited 99% yield of GVL from LA by hydrogenation at 70 C and 0.5 MPa H 2 pressure. However, LA conversion decreased to below 90% when the Ru/HAP was repeatedly used for 5 times.…”