Large scale production of chemicals and fuels from renewable feedstocks such as biomass is very important for sustainable future. The cost-efficient utilization of biomass will help in shifting the use of conventional petrochemical feedstocks to renewable biomass based feedstocks. ADEM has developed a series of solid acid catalysts for processing the biomass to platform-based chemicals (Furfural and 5-HMF) and further downstream processing to Furan derivatives on Cu based bimetallic catalysts.
These catalysts are acid functionalized porous metal oxide nanowires with tunable acidity (acid strength and acid sites) and type of acidity (Lewis Vs Bronsted) required. This catalyst can be used in the selective dehydration of biomass derived sugars to furfurals.
These are Cu based bimetallic catalysts for selective hydrogenation of furfural and 5-HMF. The bimetallic catalysts are developed using plasma-oxidation process, resulting in uniform bimetallic alloy composition with controlled nanoparticle size and uniform active sites. These catalysts are Cr and precious metal free which offers excellent activity and stability for the selective hydrogenation of furfural to furan derivatives (2-methylfuran and 2-methyltetrahydrofuran). Our catalysts have excellent mechanical properties such as crush strength and attrition resistance and are readily deployable in slurry and fixed bed reactors.