Sustainable production of benzene from lignin

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 12; no. 1; p. 4534
• Main Authors: Meng, Qinglei, Yan, Jiang, Wu, Ruizhi, Liu, Huizhen, Sun, Yang, Wu, NingNing, Xiang, Junfeng, Zheng, Lirong, Zhang, Jing, Han, Buxing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group 26.07.2021; Nature Publishing Group UK; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: Benzene; Catalysts; Density functional theory; Hydrocarbons; Hydrogenolysis; Lignin; Lignocellulose; Molecular structure; Reaction mechanisms; Silica; Silicon dioxide; Sustainable production; Weight; Zeolites
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-24780-8

Abstract Benzene is a widely used commodity chemical, which is currently produced from fossil resources. Lignin, a waste from lignocellulosic biomass industry, is the most abundant renewable source of benzene ring in nature. Efficient production of benzene from lignin, which requires total transformation of C sp2 -C sp3 /C sp2 -O into C-H bonds without side hydrogenation, is of great importance, but has not been realized. Here, we report that high-silica HY zeolite supported RuW alloy catalyst enables in situ refining of lignin, exclusively to benzene via coupling Bronsted acid catalyzed transformation of the C sp2 -C sp3 bonds on the local structure of lignin molecule and RuW catalyzed hydrogenolysis of the C sp2 -O bonds using the locally abstracted hydrogen from lignin molecule, affording a benzene yield of 18.8% on lignin weight basis in water system. The reaction mechanism is elucidated in detail by combination of control experiments and density functional theory calculations. The high-performance protocol can be readily scaled up to produce 8.5 g of benzene product from 50.0 g lignin without any saturation byproducts. This work opens the way to produce benzene using lignin as the feedstock efficiently.