Ru-Based Materials as Efficient Catalysts for the Cellulose Valorization

1 Ru-Based Materials as Efficient Catalysts for the Cellulose Valorization 

Due to the complexity of the raw biomass materials, their catalytic valorization using tailored nanomaterials may follow different routes leading to a very large number of building blocks. Therefore, the present chapter cannot provide a complete picture of the abundant literature covering the conversion of biomass into platform molecules and their consecutively transformation to added-value products. That is why only representative examples will be discussed. One of these is the Ru-based catalyst, which recently was recognized as a powerful and extremely versatile synthetic 

Another current topic of high interest is the one-pot/direct transformation of cellulose into sugar alcohols such as sorbitol, xylitol, arabinitol, and glycerol via combined hydrolysis/hydrogenolysis reactions [31-33]. The combination of cellulose hydrolysis and hydrogenation can significantly improve the conversion of cellulose and prevent consecutive reactions toward undesired products. Instead, more valuable sugar alcohols (i.e., sorbitol) may be formed as important feedstock for the production of liquid transportation fuels upon their conversion into alkanes [34]. 

Solutions to this alternative are either a two-step process combining simple acid hydrolysis to yield glucose and further hydrogenation/ hydrogenolysis to polyols [18,35,36] or direct hydrogenolysis of cellulose 

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