Aqueous phase hydrogenolysis of sugar alcohol to higher alcohols over Ru-Mo/CMK-3 catalyst

Abstract Recently, great efforts have been devoted to the production of higher alcohols (C2+ alcohols) by chemical synthesis, but it's still quite challenging for the related heterogeneous catalysis. In this work, the hydrogenolysis of sugar alcohols derived from biomass was proposed to efficiently synthesize higher alcohols over the Ru-Mo/CMK-3 catalyst. The C C and C O bonds in sorbitol were positively broken to form C2+ alcohols, while the excessive cleavage of C O bonds to form C1–C6 alkanes was effectively suppressed. The experimental results indicated that the yield of C2+ alcohols in the products reached 49.0%, and that of C5+ alcohols reached 29.9% in a continuous flow reactor. Preliminary experimental results and catalyst characterization supported that the synergetic effect of Ru and Mo species, different Ru precursors and the mesoporous channel effect of CMK-3 carrier were the key to such high reactivity.