Intermediate conversion

Researchers have developed a new catalyst that directly converts cellulose, the most common form of biomass, into ethylene glycol, an important intermediate product for the chemical industry.

Currently, biomass is mainly used in the form of starch, which is degraded to make sugars and then fermented to make ethanol. It would be cheaper to use cellulose, which is the main component of plant cell walls and thus the most plentiful organic compound on Earth.

At the moment, cellulose is mainly processed by fermentation. However, splitting cellulose into its individual sugar components, which can then be fermented, is a slow and cost-intensive process. Hence, the direct conversion of cellulose into useful organic compounds is an attractive alternative.

Initial reactions using various noble-metal catalysts have been developed. Their disadvantage is that large amounts of expensive metal are needed to break down the cellulose and on an industrial scale these processes are not economical.