Renewable High-Purity Mono-Phenol Production from Catalytic Microwave-Induced Pyrolysis of Cellulose over Biomass-Derived Activated Carbon Catalyst

Abstract

The activated carbons (ACs) enriched in P-containing functional groups were obtained through one-pot microwave-induced pyrolysis from corn stover activated with phosphoric acid and were further tested as the catalyst for selective monophenol production from cellulose pyrolysis for the first time. Maximum AC yield (44.3 wt %) was obtained with an acid to biomass ratio of 0.85. Increasing phosphoric acid to corn stover ratios could enhance the porosity and peak intensities of Pcontaining functional groups in obtained ACs. Attained ACs had an excellent catalytic performance in phenol production with the highest selectivity of phenol (99.02 % based on peak area) in the obtained organic compounds at the catalytic temperature of 450 °C. The catalytic performance of ACs remained highly selective for phenol after using two times. The experimental results indicated that P-containing groups such as −O−P, OP, and −O−P−O− were the active reaction sites and more mespores promoted phenol production. The phenol can be generated from reforming of levoglucosenone and furfural over AC catalysts. The present work provides an efficient route to produce high selective monophenol from cellulose pyrolysis by using activated carbons as the catalyst, which further advanced the utilization of biomass to produce high-value chemicals.

Pyrolysis of Biomass Impregnated With Ammonium Dihydrogen Phosphate for Polygeneration of Phenol and Supercapacitor Electrode Material

“…cellulose. This point has been verified by previous study, wherein the AC activated by phosphoric acid was employed for phenol preparation from pyrolysis of cellulose (Zhang et al, 2018a). All of these factors might be responsible for the enhanced phenol yield.…”

“…The hydrogen source in the pyrolysis process facilitated the elimination of substitutes of phenolic compounds to generate phenol (Liu et al, 2014;Zhang et al, 2019). Differed from conventional techniques to produce phenol from lignin, Zhang et al (2018a) established a new and unique system to selectively produce phenol from non-lignin materials, such as cellulose. With the assistant of AC prepared by H 3 PO 4 activation, the phenol from cellulose pyrolysis achieved an excellent selectivity of 99.02% (in peak area%) under 450 • C. Wherein, the P-containing groups in the AC were supposed to be responsible for the generation of phenol.…”

Carbon‐Support‐Based Heterogeneous Nanocatalysts: Synthesis and Applications in Organic Reactions

“…Furthermore, one‐pot microwave‐induced pyrolysis of corn stover activated with phosphoric acid for the production of phosphorous rich (P‐rich) AC has been reported by Zhang et al . The P‐rich AC was further used first time as a heterogeneous catalyst for selective production of monophenol from cellulose pyrolysis.…”

Phytocat – a bio-derived Ni catalyst for rapid de-polymerization of polystyrene using a synergistic approach

“…28,29 Microwave pyrolysis is gaining attention at both pilot and industrial scale, as an efficient and economical process owing to the short processing time and uniform volumetric heating of the feedstock. 30,31 Recently Ni has been applied in pyrolysis-based experiments to improve tar reforming activity through its high efficiency in breaking C-C and C-H bonds. 27,31 Microwave assisted co-pyrolysis of biomass with plastics is an emerging, sustainable approach for enhancing product value and process energy efficiency, with only a few reported studies.…”