Eastern Kentucky University
Novel Catalysts and Solvents for Biofuels Production
Institution
Eastern Kentucky University
Faculty Advisor/ Mentor
Laurel Morton
Abstract
A significant amount of public attention has recently been focused on the production and use of renewable energy resources. The development of efficient methods for producing petroleum replacement fuels has fostered the hope that biomass derived fuels (such as ethanol) can offset the serious concerns related to the long term environmental damage and inherently nonsustainable nature of petroleum. Additionally, the process conditions (high temperatures and acidic solutions) required to efficiently convert cellulose to simple fermentable sugars are problematic. Ionic liquids have shown promise as solvents for the dissolution of cellulose and lignin and therefore have the potential to assist these catalysts as they breakdown the biomass. Combining the ability of the ionic liquid solvent to dissolve lignin with the reactivity of metalloporphyrins could overcome many of the challenges in the full utilization of biomass. Our research has focused on the synthesis of novel porphyrin catalysts and the determination of their catalytic activity towards biomass samples. Our efforts on the synthesis and characterization of several novel porphyrin ligands containing ionic liquid functionalization will be presented. These novel metalloporphyrin/ionic liquid complexes would function as both catalyst and solvent and therefore have the potential to significantly improve the efficient production of valuable bioproducts from lignin.
Novel Catalysts and Solvents for Biofuels Production
A significant amount of public attention has recently been focused on the production and use of renewable energy resources. The development of efficient methods for producing petroleum replacement fuels has fostered the hope that biomass derived fuels (such as ethanol) can offset the serious concerns related to the long term environmental damage and inherently nonsustainable nature of petroleum. Additionally, the process conditions (high temperatures and acidic solutions) required to efficiently convert cellulose to simple fermentable sugars are problematic. Ionic liquids have shown promise as solvents for the dissolution of cellulose and lignin and therefore have the potential to assist these catalysts as they breakdown the biomass. Combining the ability of the ionic liquid solvent to dissolve lignin with the reactivity of metalloporphyrins could overcome many of the challenges in the full utilization of biomass. Our research has focused on the synthesis of novel porphyrin catalysts and the determination of their catalytic activity towards biomass samples. Our efforts on the synthesis and characterization of several novel porphyrin ligands containing ionic liquid functionalization will be presented. These novel metalloporphyrin/ionic liquid complexes would function as both catalyst and solvent and therefore have the potential to significantly improve the efficient production of valuable bioproducts from lignin.