Heterogeneous Catalysis in Production and Utilization of Formic Acid for Renewable Energy

As the cleanest energy source, hydrogen has been followed with interest by researchers around the world. However, due to the internal low density of hydrogen, it cannot be stored and used efficiently which limits the hydrogen application on a huge scale. Chemical hydrogen storage is considered as a useful method for efficient handling and storage. Due to its excellent safety, formic acid stands out. It is worth noting that the matter and energy conversion is established based on formic acid, which is not referred to in the previous documentation. In this review, the latest development of research on heterogeneous catalysis via production and application of formic acid for energy application is reported. The matter and energy conversion based on formic acid are both discussed systematically. More importantly, with formic acid as the node, biomass energy shows potential to be in a dominant position in the energy conversion process. In addition, the catalytic mechanism is also mentioned. This review can provide the current state in this field and the new inspirations for developing superior catalytic systems.

Valorization of Glycerol through Plasma-Induced Transformation into Formic Acid

To cope with climate change issues, a significant shift is required in worldwide energy sources. Hydrogen and bioenergy are being considered as alternatives toward a carbon neutral society, making formic acid - a hydrogen carrying product of glycerol - of interest for the valorization of glycerol. Here we investigate the plasma-induced transformation of glycerol in an aqueous nanosecond repetitively pulsed discharge reactor. We found that the water content in the aqueous mixture fulfilled a crucial role in both the gas phase (as a source of OH radicals) and the liquid phase (as a promotor of the dissolved OH radical's mobility and reactivity). The formic acid produced was linearly proportional to the specific input energy, and the most cost-effective production of formic acid was found with 10 % v/v glycerol in the aqueous mixture. A plausible reaction pathway was proposed, consisting of the OH radical-driven dehydrogenation and dehydration of glycerol. The results provide a fundamental understanding of plasma-induced transformation of glycerol to formic acid and insights for future practical applications.

Chemicals Production from Glycerol through Heterogeneous Catalysis: A Review

Utilization of biofuels generated from renewable sources has attracted broad attention due to their benefits such as reducing consumption of fossil fuels, sustainability, and consequently prevention of global warming. The production of biodiesel causes a huge amount of by-product, crude glycerol, to accumulate. Glycerol, because of its unique structure having three hydroxyl groups, can be converted to a variety of industrially valuable products. In recent decades, increasing studies have been carried out on different catalytic pathways to selectively produce a wide range of glycerol derivatives. In the current review, the main routes including carboxylation, oxidation, etherification, hydrogenolysis, esterification, and dehydration to convert glycerol to value-added products are investigated. In order to achieve more glycerol conversion and higher desired product selectivity, acquisition of knowledge on the catalysts, the type of acidic or basic, the supports, and studying various reaction pathways and operating parameters are necessary. This review attempts to summarize the knowledge of catalytic reactions and mechanisms leading to value-added derivatives of glycerol. Additionally, the application of main products from glycerol are discussed. In addition, an overview on the market of glycerol, its properties, applications, and prospects is presented.

Efficiently selective oxidation of glycerol by BiQDs/BiOBr–Ov: promotion of molecular oxygen activation by Bi quantum dots and oxygen vacancies

Bi_QDs and O_v can promote the activation of O₂ to make Bi_QDs/BiOBr–O_v catalyze the selective oxidation of glycerol efficiently.

Catalytic Applications of Vanadium: A Mechanistic Perspective

The chemistry of vanadium has seen remarkable activity in the past 50 years. In the present review, reactions catalyzed by homogeneous and supported vanadium complexes from 2008 to 2018 are summarized and discussed. Particular attention is given to mechanistic and kinetics studies of vanadium-catalyzed reactions including oxidations of alkanes, alkenes, arenes, alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, and sulfur species, as well as oxidative C-C and C-O bond cleavage, carbon-carbon bond formation, deoxydehydration, haloperoxidase, cyanation, hydrogenation, dehydrogenation, ring-opening metathesis polymerization, and oxo/imido heterometathesis. Additionally, insights into heterogeneous vanadium catalysis are provided when parallels can be drawn from the homogeneous literature.

Towards Sustainable Production of Formic Acid

Formic acid is a widely used commodity chemical. It can be used as a safe, easily handled, and transported source of hydrogen or carbon monoxide for different reactions, including those producing fuels. The review includes historical aspects of formic acid production. It briefly analyzes production based on traditional sources, such as carbon monoxide, methanol, and methane. However, the main emphasis is on the sustainable production of formic acid from biomass and biomass-derived products through hydrolysis and oxidation processes. New strategies of low-temperature synthesis from biomass may lead to the utilization of formic acid for the production of fuel additives, such as methanol; upgraded bio-oil; γ-valerolactone and its derivatives; and synthesis gas used for the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis of hydrocarbons. Some technological aspects are also considered.

Factors Influencing the Performance of Pd/C Catalysts in the Green Production of Hydrogen from Formic Acid

Formic acid derived from biomass is known to be used for hydrogen production over Pd catalysts. The effects of preparation variables, structure of the carbon support, surface functional composition on the state of Pd, and catalytic properties of the samples in the vapor-phase decomposition of formic acid were studied. In all catalysts derived from Pd acetate, metal particles visible by conventional TEM had similar sizes, but the adsorption capacity towards CO responded strongly to N-doping of the carbon surface. Moreover, a decrease in the CO/Pd values was accompanied by a significant increase in the reaction rate. Taking account of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and atomic resolution high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAADF/STEM) data, the trends observed were assigned to a larger fraction of single electron-deficient Pd atoms in the N-doped samples, which do not adsorb CO but interact with formic acid to produce hydrogen. This was confirmed by extended DFT studies. The obtained results are valuable for the development of Pd catalysts on carbon supports for different processes.

Hetropolyacid-Catalyzed Oxidation of Glycerol into Lactic Acid under Mild Base-Free Conditions

Lactic acid (LA) is a versatile platform molecule owing to the opportunity to transform this compound into useful chemicals and materials. Therefore, efficient production of LA based on inexpensive renewable feedstocks is of utmost importance for insuring its market availability. Herein, we report the efficient conversion of glycerol into LA catalyzed by heteropolyacids (HPAs) under mild base-free conditions. The catalytic performance of molecular HPAs appears to correlate with their redox potential and Brønsted acidity. Namely, H3 PMo(12)O(40) (HPMo) exhibits the best selectivity towards LA (90 %) with 88 % conversion of glycerol. Loading of HPMo onto a carbon support (HPMo/C) further improves LA productivity resulting in 94 % selectivity at 98 % conversion under optimized reaction conditions. The reaction takes place through the formation of dihydroxyacetone/glyceraldehyde and pyruvaldehyde as intermediates. No leaching of HPMo was observed under the applied reaction conditions and HPMo/C could be recycled 5 times without significant loss of activity.