Mechanistic investigation of the hydrodeoxygenation of furfural to 2- methylfuran over Ru/C using isotopic labeling techniquesMechanistic investigation of the hydrodeoxygenation of furfural to 2- methylfuran over Ru/C using isotopic labeling techniques Σύντομη Δημοσίευση σε Συνέδριο Conference Short Paper 2015-11-152014enFundamental understanding regarding the role of the surface mediated reaction mechanism in biomass upgrading to fuels and chemicals is key to the rational design of catalysts. Hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of oxygenated furanics, e.g., furfural and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, to reduced furanics, e.g., 2-methylfuran (2-MF) and 2,5-dimethylfuran, is an important step in the upgrade of cellulose/hemicellulose-based biomass to fuels and chemicals [1]. Previous studies show that a mildly oxidized Ru/C catalyst performs furfural HDO toward 2-MF using catalytic transfer hydrogenation (CTH) using 2-propanol (IPA) as a hydrogen source [2, 3]. However, the role of the catalyst in HDO remains unclear. Furfural HDO consists of 2 key steps: (1) the hydrogenation of furfural to furfuryl alcohol (FA), and (2) hydrogenolysis of FA to 2-MF. We hypothesize that the hydrogenation step can happen either via metal-mediated hydrogenation via surface adsorbed H-atoms from the dehydrogenation of IPA or via Lewis acid-mediated hydrogenation, where a hydrogen atom is transferred in one, concerted step from IPA in a Meerwein-Ponndorf-Verley type mechanism. Furthermore, we suspect that the hydrogenolysis step occurs either via direct hydrogenolysis, where a surface adsorbed hydrogen directly cleaves the C-O bond in FA, or via ring activation, where a hydrogen atom is first added to the ring before removal of oxygen.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/24th North American Catalysis Society MeetingPaper_12014_extendedabstract_3202_0 (1).pdfChania [Greece]Library of TUC2015-11-15application/pdf165.9 kBfree Panagiotopoulou Paraskevi Παναγιωτοπουλου Παρασκευη Vlachos G. Dionisios Gilkey Matthew Bingjun Xu