Coupling experimental with simulation studies into the impact factors and reaction mechanism of sawdust char pressured hydrogasification on K-modified transition metal composite catalysts.

The utilization of biomass char was hindered by the low gasification activity due to thick ring structures and unclear gasification mechanism. Herein, the mechanism was elucidated by experimental and DFT to improve the activity. The results demonstrated that temperature increased the gasification activity but did not changed the order of gasification activity of samples.

Supported cobalt catalysts for the selective hydrogenation of ethyl levulinate to various chemicals.

A highly active and selective cobalt catalyst was developed for the hydrogenation of biomass-derived ethyl levulinate (EL) to γ-valerolactone (GVL), ethyl 4-hydroxypentanoate (EHP), 1,4-pentanediol (1,4-PDO) and 2-methyltetrahydrofuran (2-MTHF), which are considered to be value-added chemicals and important biofuels. The effects of reaction time, reaction temperature, catalyst amount and solvent on its catalytic performance were investigated. In addition, the reaction pathway was studied as well.