Catalytic transformations of birch kraft pulp

The goal of the work was to investigate hydrolysis and hydrogenation of a mixture of cellulose and hemicelluloses. Hydrolysis and hydrolytic hydrogenation of bleached birch (betula) kraft pulp from a Finnish pulping mill and microcrystalline cellulose (Aldrich) into sugars and sugar alcohols was carried out in the liquid phase in a batch mode under 20 bar of hydrogen at 458 K. Proton forms of different microporous and mesoporous materials, Pt modified MCM-48, MCM-41 mesoporous material, and Pt on Al ₂O ₃ were used in the catalytic experiments. The conversion of cellulose and hemicelluloses was dependent on the type of zeolite structure, strength of active sites, their number, and presence of metal. The ratio of formed monomers/dimers varied because of the pore size of the used catalyst. The yields of the main products, for example, sugars, sugar alcohols, and furfurals (xylose, glucose, xylitol, sorbitol, furfural, furfuryl alcohol, and 5-hydroxymethyl furfural), were shown to depend on the type of substrate as well as on the active sites, acidity, presence of metal, and structure of the zeolite and mesoporous material.