Bifunctional Solid Lewis Acid–Base Catalysts for Efficient Conversion of the Glucose–Xylose Mixture to Methyl Lactate
Hongjin Qu, Xu Chen, Zhongyi Liu, Xiaomei Yang, Lipeng Zhou
Abstract
Sugars produced from lignocellulose hydrolyzate are usually a mixture, of which glucose and xylose are the most abundant. Herein, a bifunctional solid catalyst (Mg-Sn-Beta zeolite) with Lewis (L) acidity and L basicity is developed, which can efficiently catalyze the glucose–xylose mixture to methyl lactate (MLA). This avoids the economic cost and cumbersome operation caused by separating mixed sugars. The retro-aldol condensation and aldol condensation are two major steps in converting glucose and/or xylose to MLA. L acid sites and L base sites in Mg-Sn-Beta zeolite are favorable for the above two steps. 1Mg-Sn-Beta- x and y Mg-Sn-Beta-100 with different contents of L acid sites and L base sites were characterized via various techniques. In the conversion of glucose–xylose mixture to MLA, a considerable yield (52%) was obtained over 2Mg-Sn-Beta-100 compared with that on Sn-Beta-100 (25%). Besides, 2Mg-Sn-Beta-100 exhibited excellent stability and reusability during five reaction runs.