BIOCATMAG · CATALYSIS IN AQUEOUS SOLUTION BY MAGNETIC INDUCTION: BIOMASS VALORIZATION

Within a worldwide upsurge of renewable energies and the need to replace chemicals from fossil sources, BIOCATMAG intends to offer a new catalytic approach for producing chemicals from biomass. Based on magnetically induced catalysis, where a catalyst with a magnetic response combines heating and catalytic functions under an alternate magnetic field, the technology presented would enable the coupling of intermittent renewable energies with biomass valorization. Remarkably, several challenges, but also opportunities, lie on the horizon owing to the use of magnetocatalysis. Some of them would be tuning the selectivity by changing the magnetic field amplitude, stabilizing magnetic metal nanoparticles in water or the need to accomplish cascade-type processes. Therefore, the project aims to broaden current knowledge of magnetically induced catalysis while providing a set of chemicals using unprecedented non-noble metal catalysts and greener reaction conditions, such as aqueous media and low pressures. Furthermore, the reactions have been carefully chosen to cover the main areas of interest in biomass valorization by heterogeneous catalysis. In that sense, the transformation of a next-generation platform molecule (levoglucosenone), the production of organonitrogen chemicals (pyrazines), and the valorization of cellulose will be the processes selected. This selection also considers the need to meet the challenges mentioned earlier. In that line, all reactions will be performed in aqueous media, the levoglucosenone hydrogenation or hydrogenolysis will be adjusted with the field amplitude, and, for the valorization of cellulose, a two-step one-pot process to 2,5-bis-hydroxymethylfurane is proposed. In this last case, a multicatalytic batch reactor working with two different temperature regions is proposed for the first time, taking advantage of the differential heating experimented by different metallic materials under the same alternate magnetic field exposure.