Selective catalytic synthesis of bio-based terephthalic acid from lignocellulose biomass

_Efficient synthesis of bio-based chemicals from renewable lignocellulosic biomass is of great significance to promote the sustainable development of chemical industry. This work aims to demonstrate that terephthalic acid, a bulk high value chemical in petrochemical industry, can be synthesized using biomass. This novel controllable transformation process was started with the selective catalytic pyrolysis of sawdust biomass to form p-xylene intermediate. The high p-xylene yield of 23.4% was obtained using the Ga2O3/SiO2/HZSM-5 catalyst under the optimized reaction condition. Subsequently, the selective oxidation of the biomass-derived aromatic intermediates to terephthalic acid was realized with the metal oxide catalysts. The highest terephthalic acid yield of 72.8% with the terephthalic acid selectivity of 82.3% was achieved using the CoMn2O4@SiO2@Fe3O4 catalyst. Based on the study of the catalytic conversion of the model compounds and the catalyst characterizations, the reaction pathways and possible reaction mechanism have been proposed.