Effects of trace contaminants on catalytic processing of biomass-derived feedstocks.

Model compound testing was conducted in a batch reactor to evaluate the effects of trace contaminant components on catalytic hydrogenation of sugars. Trace components are potential catalyst poisons when processing biomass feedstocks to value-added chemical products. Trace components include inorganic elements such as alkali metals and alkaline earths, phosphorus, sulfur, aluminum, silicon, chloride, or transition metals.